


The Tale of Nightowl

by Sophieistrash



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: Evan is a smug little thing, First Kiss, First Meetings, I can't tag Brian as Terroriser rip, Jon is a sweetheart, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Third Person, Random & Short, Slow Burn, Superheroes, The violence part is not graphic trust me, from Del's perspective in a way, half video game half real life, it's a playthrough, like 3-4 chapters in case I decide to continue, nightowl, or Brock as Moo, probably at least lol, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22089403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophieistrash/pseuds/Sophieistrash
Summary: "Hey, man, so I'm legally allowed to talk about this shit… And I thought maybe you'd want to check it out, make a video on it or something. Of course, you don't have to I'm just giving you a heads-up that you can. :)That fucker had sent him an early access pass to a video game.A. Video. Game.The Tale of Nightowl."Or: Evan creates a game in which a lot of in real life events -sprinkled with a hint of far from subtle homoerotica might I add- occur, and as Delirious plays through it he slowly but surely starts to question the strenght of their friendship and how thin the line between the latter and something a little more actually may be.
Relationships: Evan Fong/Jonathan | H2ODelirious
Comments: 44
Kudos: 239





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, so I had a really vague dream about our favourite ship in around August (2019 obv) in which Delirious played a game about him and Vanoss and I couldn't help but start writing it. Welp I never got around finishing the first chapter but here I am now... So let me know if I should continue. 
> 
> \- Soph x

To say Delirious was a proud man when his online best friend revealed yet another secret project of his was an understatement. Evan had been dropping hints about it for months, but he never told Jonathan what it really was, afraid that the jittery man would get too excited and accidentally say something about it to the public. Let it be in a video, thanks to his ever-present exhaustion, or on Twitter.

So, when the masked man woke up one day with a private message from Vanoss himself displayed on his PC, Delirious almost fell out of his chair. 

**Hey, man, so I'm legally allowed to talk about this shit… And I thought maybe you'd want to check it out, make a video on it or something. Of course, you don't have to I'm just giving you a heads-up that you can. :)**

That fucker had sent him an early access pass to a video game.

A. Video. Game.

_The Tale of Nightowl._

The missing puzzle pieces slowly completed each other in Jonathan's head, he could recall almost every clue Evan had given him in these past months.

_"Yo, Jay can I use your blue hoodie look for something?"_

_"Tea is ready. I will definitely put this into - oh, nevermind."_

_"I don't know, man I kinda wanna try out some single player games."_

Jonathan didn't hesitate to click the link, the thought of a breakfast or rather lunch long forgotten as the clock hit two in the afternoon, Elgato turned on. He'd record an intro later.

~  
First, he had to choose one from the default characters. The game warned him that each of them had a slightly different storyline - mostly because of their backgrounds- so even this first decision was going to influence the further happenings. 

"Mary is a sweet girl with two little brothers to look after but one day she has to look for a job. Yada, yada, yada... Will she apply for the great Nightowl's training?" Delirious read it aloud, going through each description of the characters, his gaze immediately fixated on a guy named Jason.

Jason had jet black hair swept to the side and a blue hoodie, a mischievous smirk atop his lips, the end of a tattoo peeked out from under the neck of his light, almost grey t-shirt.

"Oh, and who do we have here?" Jonathan hummed, mouse hovering over the -undeniable- in game version of himself. 

"Jason, an energetic goofball who knows more than he's letting on. He's an amazin' friend and partner, aww." The gamer ran a hand through his messy hair, inhaling slowly.

There was no way Evan did this on purpose. Just because the guy on screen looked like how most thumbnail artist portrayed Delirious didn't mean this was supposed to be him. Besides, tens if not hundreds of people had worked on this so not everything was in Vanoss' hands, he was sure of it.

"Skilful and street smart. Do you think he's the one?"

 _Definitely._ He thought to himself, a strange tingling feeling ran up from his neck to his cheeks. Forcefully rubbing the already red area, Jonathan wondered why he was experiencing such a thing.

"Yeah, I-I think I'll go with him. He seems cool." Letting out one of his infamously insane cackles, he clicked on Jason and customized him a little. "Just some gloves, a mask and- there."

Happy with the adjustments, he straightened his back and clicked play.

However, he wasn't ready to be met by Evan's silky-smooth voice as a cut scene from a bird's eye view of a Gotham like city popped up, camera panning through the sky. 

**_"Heroes had always lived amongst us. Some were recognized and praised like gods as others never had a chance to be in the limelight, though most of the latter didn't mind that."_ **

"Oh wow, very deep, Vanoss." Jon hummed, clasping his mouth shut so he could listen to the narration. 

He loathed when people waffled over a cutscene so naturally he avoided to do just that as much as he could. 

**_"These everyday heroes matter. Take Jason Connor for instance."_ **

The studio recording of his friend sounded so high quality, Delirious mumbled 'I never knew I could hear in HD' or something along those lines, knowing that his viewers were a hundred percent going to pick up on that nonsensical remark. In the meantime, the camera zoomed on an alleyway where a figure was slumped over back against the wall, hood over their head.

 ** _"He's done everything to keep his friends safe no matter how risky it was for him, he was ready to take a bullet for them… But then he took the side of the wrong crowd."_** Evan sighed; tone sorrowful.

**_"And now he's all alone."_ **

As Vanoss’ monologue was over, Jonathan’s monitor told him how to move his character and other basic instructions. However, the blue-eyed man was stuck in a trance, mulling over the words that had left his online best friend’s lips. 

He sided with the wrong crowd, what? Was Evan talking about his departure from the crew when he decided to concentrate on helping smaller creators out, including his brother from another mother? _Surely, not. No._

There was no way the Canadian still held a grudge over him for no clear reason whatsoever. Delirious never abandoned him nor the others for that matter, he still played with them every now and then but it was his own choice to spice up his content- which he didn’t miss to voice might I add - so what the hell was this all about? 

"Oh shit." The notification for his first objective made a bloop sound, startling Delirious for a moment before he could entirely snap out of his over-analyzation. 

A hard cut was needed there, Jonathan took a deep breath before he resumed the game and actually started moving in it. 

~  
The first few minutes were about exploring and looting. Easter eggs of the Banana Bus Squad in plain sight were everywhere, a billboard advertised the Vanoss superhero school a few feet away from the poster Delirious was looking for, bullet ploof grass was displayed on a flier he could pick up beside a restaurant called ‘Mom Made Chicken’. Those were only a few things as so much more were hidden yet to be discovered. 

The storyline developed slowly but surely; Jonathan got to a point where a 'Breaking News' segment introduced the other protagonist who held the title role of the game. He watched it from an electronics shop window, and for once chose to go straight for the main objective with only a couple of detours.

Jason needed a new purpose in life and fighting crime was the best option here.

Several sounds of joy and screams of terror - some jump scares were hidden on the map, raccoons running out from behind dumpsters and once a moose crossed his path when on the outskirts of the city - and a bar fight later, he managed to find the address of the superhero try-outs. Taking the subway to get there, a rickety hut with a gross basement - similar to the one in Fight Club- by the train tracks was his destination. 

Throughout the whole journey he was rather distracted, his sentences were all over the place from excitement. He couldn't wait to get in touch with the main characters and make decisions that mattered - not insignificant ones like whether to take the bus or the subway, or to point a fumbler assistant towards a coffee shop or leave them be.

 ** _"Neext!"_** Evan's distorted voice rang out in the hallways as Delirious's middle finger held down ‘W’ on the keyboard. 

His character shuffled forward, a barely blinking light bulb hung above his head. Two pairs of eyes immediately locked onto him, both behind masks, an owl and a - monkey? Marcel's monkey, not Lui's Pogo mask. 

_Weird._

"Basically? He's in this, wow. This game just keeps getting better, you guys."

Out of all people Evan could've asked to collab with on this Jonathan would've never thought it was going to be Marcel. Let's be real, he thought he'd be the only one but clearly that wasn't the case. Hell, maybe everyone was in this except for him!

Although, he wasn't one to get jealous this did hurt him on the inside.

 ** _"Name and superpower."_** Marcel demanded in a deeper tone than normal as the pixelated Vanoss went through notes. 

It was Delirious's cue to pick an answer, the timer was ticking as he randomly pressed something in his baffled and panicked state.

" ** _I'm - uh, Manic... Water? And I-uh, I'm a great runner."_**

No matter how hard Jon tried to hold them back, he couldn't help it anymore as laughs bubbled out from his throat - that name was purely ridiculous. Might as well call him insane clown or some shit, right?

"Are you serious? Are you fuckin' serious?" Clutching his stomach, he could barely sit still. “Oh man, they should’ve put rain as a power for him!” He added, happy tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

His friend was something else.

In any way so ever, this was the first time Delirious heard his character talk not only hum or use some form of nonverbal communication. The voice suited the man. It wasn't his own - it couldn't have been without his permission anyways- but the stutter and the accent... This wasn't a coincidence.

Evan's movements ceased, he paused whatever he occupied himself with and tilted a masked face to the side in question.

**_"I'm sorry, what?"_ **

Marcel - Castle Monkey, Jon almost snorted, according to the subtitles - exchanged a look with the other hero, expression unreadable since hidden.

**_"Yeah man, that's not a superpower."_ **

"L-l-look it is if you really think about it, you damn hoodlum." Delirious feigned offense into his microphone, his office chair swirled to the left a little. 

Time for a choice: he dragged his mouse to the best one and clicked without second thoughts.

" ** _It's not like you guys have superpowers either. You rely on your gadgets, isn't that right?"_** Jason crossed his arms over his chest. 

**_"Alright, next."_ **Marcel attempted to dismiss him, but Evan interrupted his presumed right-hand man, clearly intrigued.

**_"Why do you want to work for- I mean, work with us?"_ **

"Oh, Vanoss." Delirious clicked his tongue with a chuckle. "For the moneys and teddy bear, I thought we've talked about this."

Unfortunately, this wasn't an option, so he went with this instead: **_"Honestly? I have nothing better to do with my time and I thought, d' you know what? I could be helpful for once. I apparently have a great sense of direction, my reflexes are fuckin' amazin' and I'm loyal. Or at least that's what I've been told."_**

In game Evan rose to his feet slowly and walked towards Jason. He stopped about half a foot away from him, 'Nightowl' was depicted to be an inch or so taller than the guy with a blue hoodie. How inaccurate, he thought. 

"What now, Ev, you gonna fight me?" Delirious giggled to himself, waiting for the slow-paced sketch to develop. "I, uh, Evan, Vanoss. I mean him. Jason, yeah." 

The prediction turned out to be correct, the hero gave him the option to -with his words- 'show him what he got' and since Jonathan wasn't a coward, he accepted the challenge within a heartbeat. 

Dodging fists and flying objects, Delirious had to be careful what he pressed and not to spam his keys or else his mission most likely would've taken a drastic turn. With only two or three minor fuckups he managed to hold his ground, meaningless curses were thrown at his best friend everywhere as he battled the other man in a phantasmagorical world. 

"I hate you, you damn owl. Why you gotta be so difficult, man?" He shook his cramped fingers, stomach churning - a reminder that he had yet to eat something soon. 

Nightowl threw Jason off him and with great difficulty scrambled to his feet, dusting off his outstandingly tight black cargo pants whilst taking several steps back. The man in the blue hoodie grunted in pain, he almost fainted as he tried to mirror the hero’s stance.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…. You got this, Jason. Come on get up!” Delirious shouted encouragements to his character, index finger fast on the left mouse button to res him sooner. 

As the American struggled to make Jason stand with his back turned to him, the man in the owl mask took one last look at his potential apprentice and waved him off. **_We’re done. I’ll contact you when we made a decision.”_**

The screen turned dark for a split second, a still image of the underground location he was just in signalled that the game was loading, Delirious could finally stretch a little, stiff muscles happy to be moved around after so long.

The next thing he knew was his character spawning outside on the street, no objective present in bottom text. Jonathan walked around for a few minutes, trying to critique the graphics and the design but he couldn’t find any flaws as of yet. 

Although, he was ready to log off and take a breather, aware how it was no point in uploading two hours of barely cut footage, his plan was changed when Jason’s phone buzzed in his pocket. 

Nightowl invited Manic Water to train with him. Privately, just the two of them.

This was going to be fun.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for encouraging me to continue this, y'all are the best. <3

**Delirious: U r game is awesome :P. Thanx 4 ze pass. Gonna upload it today**

It didn't take long for the Canadian to respond, the joy was detectable in the words he sent back. 

**Owlman: Woke up just now? I'm glad u r enjoying it tho :D Any favorites yet?**

Jon smiled at his monitor when the Discord notification popped up. After two hours of playing he finally took a tiny break - his bathroom and kitchen both welcomed him dearly.

Evan double texted him.

**Owlman** : You're the first one I gave a game pass so u r footage gon be exclusive 😎

How sweet of him, Jon thought and went with the humorous road instead. 

**Delirious: I didn't wake up now you a$$hole, I've been playin as Jason. I c hoe it is tho, u r using me for the views.**

**Owlman: Jason, huh? Nice, and yeah you known it bby**

**Delirious: -.-"**

**Owlman: srry gtg for now, have fun**

**Delirious: I will but not bc u told me to :P**

Jonathan stretched his arms above his head, back sinking into his comfy gaming chair before he slipped his headphones back on, checking if his microphone of five years still worked or not.

**_“You’re a slippery one, aren’t you?”_** “ Nihtowl let out a frustrated groan as Jason dodged the fist that was swung towards him for the umpteenth time during the short period of their first spar together. 

“I don’t got no time to talk to you, snowman!” Delirious rasped. “Not when I gotta beat that ass.” 

Swapping to play with a controller instead of his keyboard and mouse combination may have been a mistake, the controls were harder to follow, mostly because he’d already got used to the keys. Attempting to get the whole experience and be authentic was taking a toll on him, the custom Vanoss controller was for no avail anyways since no one could see it - beside himself obviously.

‘Only for you’ ‘…’ and ‘Always’ were his three options as Jason’s follow up, Delirious pressed the first, giggling to himself as his character moved out of the slightly taller man’s way with a summersault, his lines intriguing to say the least.

**_”Maybe. I don’t usually like to play hard to get, though so this is only for you.”_**  
If his face weren’t covered by the infamous hockey mask Jonathan would’ve seen Jason smirk, his flirtatious tone was undeniable, nonetheless. 

“Woow, you tell ‘im Jasonlirious.” The gamer’s exclamation turned into endless cackles, his stomach hurt from how much he was laughing. 

**_”Oh, yah? Well, I don’t give up easily.”_** It was virtual Evan’s time to joke back, words more sincere than necessary in Jonathan’s eyes.

“That’s for damn sure…” Although, that mumble was mainly to himself, cutting it out never crossed his mind.

It was true, Evan was insistent – to put it lightly- and also stubborn as a mule, always ready to back his own views, driving Jonathan up the wall at times from how persistent his friend could get when it came to him. Most often than not the Canadian achieved what he wanted, the realization hit Jonathan like a truck: he could never say no to him with finality, Vanoss usually had his way in changing the older man’s answer. If he wanted to play with Delirious, he got to, if he needed an emphatic soul to listen to his rant Jonathan was all ears, and if a favour was needed there was no doubt the anonymous American would be there for him. How many times was he half asleep during recording sessions, only physically there just to please Evan, ready to drift off, a content smile atop his lips when he asked him if he were okay… He didn’t know but what he did know was that this was mutual.

Jonathan knew that he could rely on Evan, always and unconditionally. Let it be about a something significantly private, like how he was not comfortable with revealing his face to anyone yet, which the other man understood and never pressed him about, some small matter like a borrowed game or the morning meme streak the duo held for years with momentary absences. Evan was always fast to join him just to chill in a Discord call, to record a co-op and even made time for him when he was overly exhausted by and busy with organizing his tour – which Jon didn’t attend, regretting it ever since. Thankfully that was only one show, so he still had time to prepare for one of the rescheduled dates in case he managed to grow a pair and buy a plane ticket. 

**_”We’ll see about that.”_** Was the automatic response from Jason, Delirious was glad that the game did that for him because he was too deep in thought he wouldn’t have been able to pick a reply himself. 

~  
His progress in the game was highly impressive, he grinded through the main missions with ease, the blue-eyed man hadn't enjoyed a play through like this in a long time.

Although, Nightowl put Manic Water – Jonathan still cursed himself for not paying attention when selecting an alias- through hell, and he had to complete five challenges as his training before he could become a sidekick and climb his way up the hierarchy, Delirious didn't mind it. It all made sense. No one starts at the top, and the American respected the hustle.

The main focus was on character development and the evolving friendship between Jason and the 'hero no one asked for' mostly, though. The owl man spent less and less time with his original partner in crime, he showed the guy with the blue hoodie a different side of himself as time went on, slowly opening up until Jason did the same – the latter only at a certain extent but still made improvements.

The duo fought battles back to back, Nightowl’s trust rose as they took down gangs and attempted to get rid of a huge drug ring and gunrunners- which was more like an interference with a company that sold cocaine laced toilet paper in weapons.

Yepp, Vanoss did that.

And Delirious's throat was sore from laughing and shouting so much in disbelief. 

As for Marcel, he only provided them supplies and intel during their operations. As it turned out, that was the plan all along, Evan was looking for a new second in command since his previous one wanted to retreat a little and focus on his wife and a possible new family.

At first Delirious was reluctant to let anyone know where he lived in game, claiming that not even his employer – or rather only friend- was to be trusted with that much personal information. He had various opportunities to give his contacts to the man, but he refused up to the point that the owl gave up on asking him and simply tracked him down on one occasion, leaving the gamer a spluttering mess.

**_”You know you could always move in with me- I mean us. The base can bear like five people if not more.”_** The hero offered after a successful mission as the two characters sat shoulder to shoulder beer in hand, Jason’s mask pushed up so he could drink as pixelated Evan was bare faced. 

“Aw, is the great Nightowl feeling lonely?” Delirious teased not grabbing the chance when the opportunity to remove his own disguise popped up. “What should I pick, subscribers? Saying yes to him would probably mean better spawns but what if I can’t go roam free if I do?” 

It’s not like his audience could tell him what they thought only when the damage had already been done but he still liked to address them like this. He cared about their opinions, sometimes way too much…

A close up of Jason’s face, blinking fast he slightly swayed in his seat as the seconds available for the dialogue options ticked away. 

Should he give him hope? Should he completely reject the offer? It would surely be fun to live in a secret superhero lair.

**_”I’ll think about it.”_**

Nightowl’s shoulders visibly dropped at that answer, so did his face as Evan 2.0 slowly rose to his feet and with a nod turned his back to him, walking out of the frame. 

Delirious wondered what would’ve happened if he clicked ‘Sure’…

~

Jonathan got so into the game Luke came banging on his door two days after he started it to check up on him. Other than posting the first video, he basically vanished from the face of the Earth. Evan occasionally got a text whenever the eccentric man couldn't help himself and talk about _The Tale of Nightowl _but that's about it. The Canadian reassured Jon's hypothetical older brother that Delirious was still in fact alive - Luke knew that if he had no clue what the younger man was up to than Evan was the one to turn to. However, the latter thought that checking on Jonathan wasn't a bad idea either so that's exactly what happened.__

__"Jesus Christ, Delirious have you even slept ever since this shit came out?" The bearded man brushed off the plastic wrappers of granola bars and empty water bottles from the addressed man's bed, nose scrunched up in disgust._ _

__He let some light into the room, cracking a window open for air as he slowly sat down. A bit over dramatic? Maybe, but his friend had suitcase like bags underneath his eyes, hair a mess and in need of a shave._ _

__Delirious couldn't be bothered to face him in the meantime, he fiddled with the wire of one of his controllers. "Yeah."_ _

__He had to pause the game, poor him._ _

__"Well, you look tired as shit." Luke hummed eyeing the other man warily. "And I'm concerned."_ _

__"Don't you worry 'bout nothin'. Remember when I played Until Dawn?"_ _

__"How could I forget? A week of -" He gestured around the clusterfuck the room had become. " this, and I thought you'd never go outside again."_ _

__"And you'd find that unusual because? Jon rose an eyebrow at his companion, gaze challenging._ _

__Luke shook his head with an all-knowing grin. "Not at all." He held a hand up, train of thought paused before he delivered the punchline, eyebrows wiggling. "Is this game that addictive or the dude who made it?"_ _

__Blue irises almost disappeared behind long lashes as the younger man squinted his eyes at his friend arms crossed over his chest. "Fuck you."_ _

__"That's not _my_ job, man."_ _

__Jonathan lifted his hand, flipping Luke off in a half-assed manner as the other nudged his knee with his own._ _

__“You were the one who said that the owl practically goes on dates with the character who is without question based on you.”_ _

__That was somewhat true. A date like scene had in fact happened in around the third chapter in the game before the whole possibility of living together segment. Manic and Nightowl had to meet up in incognito – which was civil clothing in reality, forcing Delirious to either get rid of his mask or stick with sunglasses inside a building, the latter he couldn’t bring himself to commit- to scope out a place, some financial establishment, on the outskirts of town. The building happened to be across from a pizzeria with homecooked goods and a wholesome elderly couple being the owners both familiar with the hero’s real name _Edvin_ \- how original, Jon thought, snorting when that came up. _ _

__The eternity of the episode consisted of the two chatting, getting to know one another and lewd comments from Delirious, hinting at how getting into Jason’s pants was the owl’s plan all along, aware how crazy the fans would go if he implied what everyone was probably thinking watching the events. Nightowl’s intentions were not one hundred percent clear, the man behind the controls claimed, even after it turned out that the alleged bank robbery never took place after all – the crazy criminals plotting it just magically changed their minds as it seemed._ _

__“Just one date, and he is not based on me, just his clothes and shit.”_ _

___Luke rose a doubtful eyebrow, arms crossed he was not buying his friend’s bullshit. “Whatever you say man.”_  
~  
Jon resumed the game, after a couple of hours of chitchat, takeaway food and a shower later. 

___**"Yo, Manic, I need your help."**_ " Nightowl banged on his bedroom door, his voice easily recognizable from afar, as the rundown building almost shook from the force of the man’s knuckles. _ _

__Now when he was needed, Jason didn’t really have a choice. As for Delirious, he could click on ‘hide’ or ‘open the door’, knowing full well that if he decided to go with the former his friendship along with his trust level with the hero would be reduced and his subscribers would also be pissed at him for doing so._ _

__“Calm down, Vanoss I’m coming.” Delirious mumbled and pressed what he was supposed to._ _

__Something similar was said by Jason as he trotted to the door, looking through the peephole before cracking the wooden barrier open._ _

__What came next left Jonathan gaping with his jaw dropped, the event caught him completely off guard and he wasn’t at the peak of the game yet._ _

__“What in the hell -?”_ _

__Nightowl wrapped his strong arms around the slim but toned man- who was the opposite of physical - mask off he buried his face into his neck, whole body shaking. If it weren’t for the cutscene, there was no way Delirious would’ve locked the door behind the two since he was too caught up in attempting to solve the reason behind the motion and the owl’s unstable state._ _

__“Face reveal ~.” The gamer sang when he finally realized he was supposed to commentate at times, cackling to himself from the running gag he’d brought up._ _

__In game himself guided the raven-haired man into his tiny living-room and sat him down on the two-seat sofa. Thighs brushing, Nightowl slowed down his breathing as Delirious chose the next dialogue bit._ _

___**“What’s wrong? What happened?”**_ Jason wrapped an arm around the other man, Jonathan murmured a ‘Yeah, what happened, man’ tone gentle to mimic the character -or at least that’s how he justified the action in his mind. _ _

__“It’s- M- Castle Monkey, he’s been- he’s been kidnapped.”_ _


	3. Chapter 3

“Holy shit. Poor Mega Monkey, he’s been taken by villainous scums, I cannot let this happen.” Delirious stated with determination in his voice, his inability to learn names right shining through once again. 

In the next episode… 

No matter how much he wanted to find out what came next, he knew he had to keep up the suspense in his videos, so this was the perfect time for a cut. However, this didn’t necessarily mean he had to stop playing too but he’d promised a few rounds of Gmod hide and seek to Evan, which was long overdue, and the clock was ticking. He had no intent to be last to join the game, his friends would never let him live that down, freshening up he got ready to join a chaotic server. 

“Sup, bitches?” As a greeting was nothing new, Terroriser’s voice instantly clapped back at his words.

“Look who’s decided to wake up from his coffin.”

Delirious’s laugh mixed in with Brocks, the former only just noticed that the fourth party was muted in the call. 

“Where’s Vanoss?”

“Straight to the point, huh? We don’t even matter to you… But then again why am I surprised by this… Thoughts, Brocky?” Brian addressed the mom friend of the group, question rhetorical. 

Brock chuckled at that, the nickname ignored as a frustrated sigh escaped their Carolinian buddy’s lips. Jonathan wanted to receive an answer for his question, he didn’t ask for Brian to pull his leg.

“He had to go downstairs to feed his cat by the way, Delirious.” The oldest of the three informed him at last, Brock didn’t join in with the teasing. 

“Oh, okay. Thought he wasn’t coming or something.” Blue eyes glued onto his Steam account, Jonathan felt himself get antsy, fingers itching to launch Garry’s mod and get the death run map over and done with. 

“He wouldn’t miss it when you are here.” Brian’s grin could be detected from his tone as the Irishman liked some tweets here and there, humming in appreciation whenever he stumbled upon some spectacular fanart. 

“Shut up.” A yawn made the last syllable go an octave lower – Jonathan really should sleep sometime, a walk in the sun would also come in handy not only brief jogs with his pup at night. 

“Enjoying his game way too much, I see.” It was Brock’s turn to voice his observation, aware how quickly the man with clown paint rushed through TTONO. 

“I mean, yeah, I can’t help it. It’s interesting as hell. “Delirious trailed off, main menu of Gmod open before him, ready to change the topic. “Are y’all recording already?”

“Maybe.” It’s been a while since a Terminated Clips video was born, Brian took every chance he got to secure valuable footage. 

Evan’s chair’s wheels could be heard from the Canadian’s microphone as he unmuted himself, sending them all out the invites to the map that was made for him that week. “Hey, Jon.”

It was rarer for anyone to call Delirious by his real name than him having a normal planned out day, to say Evan’s words caught him off guard was an understatement. He might’ve done it because the duo had been in a serious chain-text since the game pass was sent to Jonathan 

“Hello, Vanoss.”

~  
The recording session stretched out more than the guys had anticipated with Scotty jumping online as well. Everyone took up the role of death once since the traps turned out to be so difficult that none of them could reach the end. In order to claim victory, Brock gave in and gifted them two extra lives and they agreed to skip one impossible spiny cartwheel kind of creature. Surprisingly enough, the theme was _The Tale of Nightowl_ , the map-maker used Delirious’s player model the most on traps – beside Vanoss’ superhero one of course – making Jon remember why he wanted to talk to Evan in the first place. 

Vanoss got an insane amount of shit for not including anyone involved in the session in his game – they were obviously kidding around, acting a bit rude at times for comic relief – Jon was the only one who stayed quiet about the topic. Evan didn’t seem to take it into heart, teasing his friends back that they weren’t famous or cool enough to appear in any high-production product. 

With just the two of them left in the voice chat room after some leftover jokes were told, a comfortable silence settled between Delirious and Vanoss. It was usual for the pair to do this, both doing their own thing – organizing footage, replying to emails and whatnot – with the ability to address the other whenever they pleased. 

Plucking up the courage to throw in a curveball Jonathan cleared his throat and cautiously tiptoed around what he wanted to communicate.

“Vanoss, tell me, why don’t you play your own game on your channel?”  
Not quite what he intended to ask but it would do… 

“You know that I don’t do play throughs. I did my promo and encouraged my subs to go over to yours and watch it there. Everybody wins, simple as that.” Jon could picture Evan shrug, maybe even have his arms crossed as he leaned back in his seat. 

He got that, he did, he just couldn’t understand why. Like, yes, the younger man hated to do solo stuff with a tendency to spiral and descend to dark places in his mind whenever there was no one who responded to his jokes. Either the necessity of commentating escaped his brain as he did so, or he went on a tirade which was funny for the viewers but a bit alarming for himself. 

“Yeah but like- are you sure? I mean you’ve been working on this for like what? A year or even more? Don’t you wanna play it, see how it works for yourself?” There had to be a way to coax more info out of Vanoss, undoubtedly. 

“I was there and contributed when the storyline was created so I pretty much know every outcome of the plot.” Evan was distracted, Jonathan could tell by the way those haphazard, almost shallow sentences rolled off the Canadian’s tongue. 

“Still, you can’t remember or know every dialogue ever or the smaller missions and shit.” Delirious’s reasoning wasn’t worded the most perfectly but the points he was making were valid, he was perplexed how he was able to come up with them in such an energy-drained state. 

A beat or two of silence passed between them, the pair listened to each other’s faint breathing, both sinking into the back of their minds for answers to both spoken and unvoiced questions. 

“You’re right, I will play it in my free time sometime but it’s not like- I’m not that excited to experience it as much as, well, for instance you are.” Evan confessed – working on the game really did a number on him, the concept was fundamentally spoiled for him by the time it was finished. 

Besides, Evan was nothing like Jonathan when it came to games. He liked to mess around in free roam open worlds, blowing up or setting everything on fire that came his way sure, however, waiting for a new one to come out like a child on Christmas morning just wasn’t him. Watching storylines develop from someone else’s perspective, unnecessary failed missions erased, the events flavoured with engaging commentary – that was the man with the obsidian hair’s preference. Gaming became his job, not a hobby and he was fine with that – at least that’s what he told his best friend. 

Jonathan tangled his fingers in his hair, heaving a sigh, voice calm and gentle – a tone he usually used when it was just the two of them casually conversing. “You’re insane to say that.” 

“Almost delirious. You’re rubbin’ off on me, man.” Evan chuckled, a smile indisputable around his words. 

“Not true. If you were, you’d be making crow noises as you get jump scared by damn bunnies in your superhero simulator.” A deep rich laugh emitted from the older man’s throat, bringing the other down with him to a breathless mess.

The atmosphere light and airy, Jonathan didn’t plan on ruining it.

“One more thing… Evan?” His name like silk wrapped in tenderness escaped the American’s mouth.

Clacking of keys halted on the other end of the line, Evan leaned closer to his mic. “Yeah?”

“Um, like if it’s the Tale of Nightowl then why don’t I get to play as you?”

A few seconds were needed for Evan to think, his reply was cryptic to say the least.

“You’ll see, Delirious. You’ll see.”

~  
Nightowl was leaning against a rather hefty table, wrists choked up on the cold surface, touchscreen monitors mounted on the wall of his planning room as Jason had the liberty to pace around him. Dark shades, black grey and greens were in the colour palette used for the setting, a pop of red stood out on some electronic devices. Surroundings noted, Delirious leafed through the place, investigating everything he could from up close, trying to piece missing puzzle pieces together in order to help the hero find out where and who’d taken Marcel. Some clues were dropped here and there, the duo was on the brink of a breakthrough. 

_**”Can you quit marching around? It’s giving me a headache.”**_ The hero cast an aggravated look his way, the movement of his fingers ceased above a keyboard. 

“Excuse you you damn olwman. I gotta look around.” Delirious gasped, a bit discombobulated from how his doings effected the dialogues this much.

But then again, the possibility of this being planned perfectly – for the players to prance around for an estimated 15-30 seconds at least, which triggered pixelated Evan’s speech – was more than likely. 

Jason automatically paused in his steps as he met the other man’s eyes. ** _”I’m just trying to think. Sorry.”_**

_**”No, um, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just – he’s been my partner for more than five years and this never happened. I never let it happen… And now I feel like I got too sloppy, gone too soft even.”**_ The owl rose to his feet, the weight of the world like filled to the brim barrels heavy on his shoulders. 

“This can’t be your fau – I mean no, Nightowl, don’t you dare blame yourself.” Jonathan frowned, an odd sting forming in his chest.

He should take fictional events a little less seriously, he came to notice. However, when something hit so close to home, he couldn’t simply do that. Push reality aside and not feel anything wasn’t him. Poor Evan, what if he felt like he’d lost a friend and pinned it on himself? What if this was his way of saying that a break in their friendship occurred because of the Canadian? What if Evan was hurting - ? 

_God, he was reading way too much into this._

‘We’ll find him’, ‘You’re right’ and ‘Not really’ flashed on Jonathan’s screen, he barely had time to comprehend the words before he clicked the first one. 

_**“Hey now, we’ll find him, don’t worry. And honestly? He’s his own man and you two parted ways – at a certain extent of course – for a valid reason. This is not your fault; don’t you ever think that.”**_ A gentle hand was placed atop Nightowl’s shoulder, Delirious smiled to himself when his in-game friend instead of flinching away relaxed into the touch. 

_Solace done right._

How he wished he could come up with something this cohesive himself in real life…

With that move the gamer chose the ‘comfort’ route, meaning the next part flowed sleekly, Jason acted without delays that would’ve made the scenes choppy and even stagnant.

_**“It kind of is. I should’ve paid more attention to him –“**_ Evan 2.0 turned towards Manic with his mask in hand, perplexation and sorrow soaked features stared back at Jonathan and everyone who either played as the blue-hoodied guy or was watching it on YouTube.

_**“You can’t keep anyone under surveillance 24/7 just because you are afraid that they’d get hurt.”**_ Jason took a step back, distance was created between the two characters as the former lowered his hood. 

“Very true, guys. Very true.” Delirious clamped his mouth shut as an instantaneous retort ensued, he could always talk to his subscribers later.

Except, more often than not he proceeded to let these thoughts slip from his memory, overly preoccupied with the happenings in the virtual worlds he’d visited. 

_**“ Is it bad that I wish I could?”**_ Nightowl drooped back into a swivel chair with one last look at his companion.  
“This is getting sentimental as fuck.” Jon mumbled, mainly to himself, though, the thought had slipped out with ease. 

_**“No, but we have to focus on finding Castle M’ alright?”**_ This reply was selected by Delirious due to his craving to experiment with switching the direction of their discussion. 

Nightowl met Jason’s gaze and slowly nodded, beckoning towards himself. _**”Help me?**_

Without thinking, voice barely above a whisper Jonathan murmured. “Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big yikers.. I mean I'm trying to keep this a slow burn fic but I'm having a difficult time doing so. Not like this isn't usual, take _'Screw Your Rules'_ for instance... 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed. I'm trying to post every three days so stay tuned for the next chapter :)


	4. Chapter 4

Nightowl and Manic Water worked harder than ever to locate Castle Monkey. Every person that had ever had the chance to harm or the idea to take the former down was taken into consideration as a threat, various side A.I.s helped the duo solve the unsolvable.

This consisted of the compulsion for Delirious to do some hacking missions that turned out to be more complicated than he’d anticipated. Without a better solution in mind, Jonathan dialled Evan’s number with his fingers crossed that his friend would pick up.

“Hey there, Delirious. What’s up?” The Canadian’s voice was cheerful, always delighted to be talking to his best friend.

Jonathan smiled to himself as he skipped small talk and instantly cut to the chase, aware that the other man wasn’t going to be mad or bewildered from doing so. “Hello, Vanoss. Listen, I’m being a hacker man in your game and it’s goddamn impossible to do these tasks.”

Evan let out a breathy laugh, a grin unquestionably on his face. “Oh, are they now?”

“Don’t you dare laugh at me you damn owl.” This was a dead giveaway – Jon never called him an owl unless it would end up on the internet – which led to Evan’s next question.

“Are you recording?” No annoyance lingered in his tone just simple curiosity.

In TTONO’s pause menu Jon nudged his mouse so the screen didn’t blacken further. “Yes?”

“Thought so.” The younger of the two hummed, thankful that he was home and not in his studio or anywhere else and he would most likely be able to help the eccentric man. “Tell me what mission and I’ll walk you through it.”

“Thank you.” Jonathan smiled so wide his cheeks hurt, contended to have gone with his gut and believed that he could count on Evan whenever.

He believed – more like knew- that even if the other man were doing something, he’d call him back later or tell him where to look for cheats, nonetheless helping was Vanoss’ forte surprisingly enough. So that’s exactly what he did. Evan described in detail how to conquer the obstacle in the system Jonathan couldn’t figure out by himself after the latter had sent him multiple pictures of his screen – that was the fastest way to show Evan what they were dealing with, okay? – and refused Delirious’s beliefs that now he owed him one.

“I’ll cut these bits by the way and only leave the part in when you answered my call. If you are okay with that of course.” Jonathan informed his friend, Evan’s reluctance to entwine real life and social media presence flashed like vibrant alarms in the back of his mind.

“I mean you can leave it in if you’d like. Maybe speed it up until we have a solution?”

“That’s a good idea, actually.” Jonathan murmured in deliberation. “Thanks again, Vanoss. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Don’t mention it. And I’m definitely not capable of such a thing.” Followed by a chuckle, Evan debated whether to keep his friend busy for a while and hold him up from his work or not.

If you knew… Jonathan thought to himself, eyebrows lifted at his own brain’s actions.

Close friendship, _right_.

“Yeah, I- I gotta go, finish this thing before I forget how to.” He trailed off at the end, eyes fixated on his monitor, no longer present in the conversation mentally.

Decision made, Evan sided with letting him go. “Alright, talk to you later, Delirious.”

“Byeee, Vanoss.”

~

Having located the establishment Marcel almost 99% was in, the two vigilantes geared up, loading some weapons in the trunk of an armoured black SUV with daffodil yellow stripes. Bulletproof vests intact, masks firmly placed on their faces – bandanas, a pair of shades each and beanies since their actual masks would’ve given them away from a mile radius in case someone spotted them - the two men buckled up in the car, Jason was the designated driver so Nightowl could keep in touch with their contact man – a random blonde guy Jonathan couldn’t place or recognize as someone from Evan’s in real life social circle- with the codename Jones.

“Damn I can’t believe that this is my first time driving in this game. Way to make it difficult as hell Vanoss.” Delirious murmured, not actually that fazed by this since the controls to get the vehicle in motion were simple and eminently common in multifarious games as well.

Familiar with the mini map, the gamer got to the waypoint without much of a fuss. The characters mostly remained quiet throughout the journey so Delirious could talk more, analyse the circumstances a little bit and hypothesize about the conceivable aftermaths. According to Jonathan Marcel was tied up in some basement preferably in a warehouse, a vicious gang holding him hostage which wished to take down Nightowl.

To his surprise, their final stop turned out to be just outside a manor atop a steep hill. He had to park a few feet away from the gate, so their car was out of range of the security cameras that were yet to be disabled. Fortunately, the latter had already been done – the hacking part – in the form of prep-work missions meaning Jon’s singular task was to press a button, and voilá the alarm system went offline as the fence slid unlocked.

**”Let’s get movin’**.” Nightowl whispered after he’d double checked that their earpieces worked, giving them a way of communication in case of separation was needed.

With the right thumb-stick pressed down once, Jason lowered himself into a crouching position slowly sneaking behind the other man, circling bushes to avoid being spotted by the few guards who strangely were not alerted about the security camera situation. Delirious didn’t miss to voice this inspection of his, he giggled at the stupidity of the NPCs.

**”I know that the basement is the most obvious place for him to be in but I think we should start searching at the top.”** Pixelated Evan put a hand on his new partner’s chest as they entered the seemingly vacant building to stop him in motion.

Even though Jonathan got the option to decline the suggestion he went with it anyways, Jason was quick to tiptoe up the stairs opposite of the flight Nightowl trudged up.

“No one here, nothing there ~.” Delirious’s voice turned sing-songy at the end as he looked through keyholes in game and opened doors with gloved fingers, doubt surfacing in his head about his decision to side with the hero on coming up there first.

“Maybe I was supposed to start from the bottom. I don’t know, I really don’t.” He hummed, the last door on the end of the hallway approached without succession.

A heavy sigh departed from behind the fence of his teeth, heartbeat rapid as excitement ran through his veins. He was a wee bit nervous, the high likelihood of failure clouding his thoughts, aware how one wrong move could get Manic and or Nightowl killed.

Delirious made Jason head back towards the direction he came from, ready to conquer the suite below. But before he could reach the staircase a flash of something dark and human like made him scream at the top of his lungs, high pitched sound ringing in his ears.

“Aaah, oh my fuckin’ god. What the hell was that?!” He shouted as Jason was spun around. “Who the fuck - ?”

Jonathan had no time to finish his question as his brain finally assessed the scene before him. Nightowl was holding Jason by his shoulders, a palm on his lips over his bandana to keep his mouth shut.

**”Shhh, it’s just me.”** The barely taller character shushed the other and beckoned towards their way down.

“Jasonlirious didn’t say nothing.” Delirious giggled to himself. “It’s like Vanoss is talking to me – the players I mean, not the characters.” 

That jump scare was unnecessary in his mind, pulse above normal the gamer focused back on the game before him. 

From the second floor he could see two guards pass the hall, one going in the presupposed kitchen’s direction as the other in the opposite way, neither sparing a glance upwards. Thanking the heavens for that, Delirious moved his character, objective to descend a level clear and doable.

“God, why are all these rooms empty?” He cursed under his breath, playing with the thought of skipping the rest of the rooms and making a beeline toward the underground area.

However, the game didn’t allow him to do that, invisible walls blocked his path, the third time he tried to cross that unseeable line, in game Vanoss asked him what an earth was he doing through his earpiece.

“Trying to take a shortcut because I know that Marcel is not here, you damn hoe.” Delirious answered the hero seeing that Jason didn’t have an option to bicker with him.

The gamer meant: not on any of the top floors; but the lack of souls in the whole building was truly unpredictable. With the basement reached, Nigthowl looked through the wine cellar as Jason was instructed to scavenge the weapon room.

What rich bastards owned this place? Jonathan wondered, pulling out drawers in order to find a key to a door in the very back of the room.

Hearing movement, Delirious was quick to turn Jason around, relieved that pixelated Vanoss entered his vision not an enemy.

**“Wine cellar’s clear.”** Nightowl sighed, then scanned the contents of the area they occupied. ” **No sign of other rooms, hidden passages either.”**

“You’re blind then, owl.” Jonathan felt the urge to add, cackling to himself as he clicked a dialogue choice.

**”There must be something here.** ” Manic gestured towards the locked door. “ **Maybe it’s him.”**

“I hope so, I really do.” Jon mainly talked to himself at this point

It’s not like he wanted the game to end but he’d worked more than enough to get their friend back so if they finally did, he would feel more than awarded.

**“Can you pick a lock?”** Believe it or not this wasn’t the first time Delirious heard Vanoss ask that.

Since the American hated to do precise things with a controller he decided to make Jason shake his head. **“Can you?”**

**“I don’t – hang on.”** Reaching into his pocket where his utility belt normally would’ve been, fishing out a small pin like metal object Evan’s voice was just above a whisper – good thing Delirious put on subtitles. “ **This gadget was developed by one of our tech guys to open any lock you’d like. Wanna try it?”**

Not passing on the responsibility this time Delirious said yes. Jason took the pin from Nightowl, the camera zoomed in on their hands brushing together. The man in the blue hoodie hesitated as he locked eyes with his ‘boss’.

“What is happening?” Jonathan inquired lowly, he could’ve sworn Nightowl didn’t want Jason to go through with this for one reason or another.

Jason’s back facing the other man, he inserted the small thing into the keyhole, Delirious had to work with both thumb-sticks to scratch around and turn the pin to imitate a key. Evan 2.0 being his lookout watched his back, a silenced pistol drawn out as a satisfying click signalled that the pin had worked. 

‘Go in’ ‘Look inside’ and ‘Let Nightowl go’ glowed on Delirious’s screen, he chose the middle one, claiming verbally too that realistically was the safest option.

“Come on Marcel, be here.” He practically begged, the door oh-so-slowly moving inwards.

Jason peered inside cautiously with the other man right on his tail. It was impossible to make out anything in the room as they entered, it was so dark – clearly not due to messed up display settings more for dramatic effect.

**“Can you see anything?”**

” Nope.” Popping the ‘p’ Delirious listened to his character say something similar along those lines, adding a cheeky ‘What sort of owl can’t see in the dark?’.

**“Fake ones.”** Evan deadpanned, plucking a flashlight seemingly out of nowhere, shining around, almost blinding Jason in the process.

A modest storage room blinked back at them, a couple of cardboard boxes stacked atop one another, Marcel nowhere to be seen.

“Where the fuck is he then?” Delirious rasped, incredulity easily to sense from his intonation.

Spotting a light switch Jonathan impulsively pressed ‘A’ to flick it, as if a gust of forceful wind somehow invaded the manor, the door was slammed shut, a startling tick like noise suggested that the two men were entrapped. The boisterousness stunned Jonathan, expressing one of his notorious crow caws, he found himself eye-to-eye with Nightowl, a third person point of view showed that Jason’s perspective was significant but his presence more important.

But hey, at least they could see now…

The hero circled his new partner in crime, hands urgently on the currently no longer existent doorknob. 

**”Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.”** Nightowl mumbled like a mantra, an idea popping up in his mind. **”Do you still have the pin?”**

“I better do…” Delirious thought aloud, pressing ‘Search pockets’ as a task for Manic to do.

Spamming buttons left and right, Delirious made Jason practically feel himself up and scan around the floor, under the cabinet and wherever he could look. No matter how hard both searched the key replacement was absent.

” **Alright… Don’t panic, as long as we don’t find traps, we’re fine.** ” Evan’s voice may have felt reassuring for Jonathan, his character didn’t feel at ease because of them.

The foundations Jason came with combined with Delirious’s choices, Manic had grown to be a rather laid-back person – with self-abandonment issues, an oxymoron at its finest – but claustrophobia was no joke and he happened to have that from the get-go.

“Yes, Vanoss, we just have to find a way to get out. And maybe find out why and who blocked us in here…”

‘Pace’ ‘How are you so calm’ ‘Where the hell is he’ floated on his screen, the third was the winner in Delirious’s books.

” **No, we won’t be fine. We’re trapped in the basement of a fucking mansion without a possible way to get out. “** Jason ripped off his disguise, sweat beading on his reddened forehead.

“Oh damn, Jasonlirious just face revealed. Censor that, nothing to see here.” The gamer joked, planning to blur his character’s face for a second or two for the sake of the gag.

**”Besides, where the hell is Castle Monkey then, huh? Every bit of information we’d gathered about his captors lead us here and now he is fucking nowhere?! Fuck. I trapped us in here and it’s all my fault.** ” Black locks swayed as Jason walked up to a wall to press his head against it in the cutscene, breaths coming out more hysterically as the seconds passed.

Evan made sure there were no hidden cameras in the meantime and also discarded his bandana, hat and whatnot, clothing items hitting the floor with soft thumps.

“Nooo Jasonlirious, he will be here, I can feel it.” Delirious protested as he let the events develop on their own.

A firm hand was placed on Jason’s arm, gently twirling him around so he’d stop hitting his head on the wall.

**”You need to calm down. There must be a way out but raging won’t help us figure out where or how.** ”

“Is that it? Is that all you can give me as advice?” Jon gasped, brain set on riling his character up even more.

‘Fuck that’.

**”Fuck that. How are you so calm, huh? You were all anxious about your partner’s kidnapping and now you act like as if I didn’t just completely screw over our chance to get him back. How pretentious can you be? Do you even fuckin’ care about him or was it just an act?”** A push to the hero’s chest and Nightowl only blinked at Manic with sad eyes.

“Yeah… I guess his snowman blood doesn’t allow him to get angry…” Was the most intelligible commentary Jon could provide, the tension rose in the room before his eyes.

The taller of the duo steadied Jason by his shoulders just to get shrugged off.

**“I do care, deeply, it’s just-“**

**“Just what? You like confined mouldy spaces in dungeons? Is this like a fetish of yours you -?** ” Manic pushed an accusing finger against the Canadian’s chest, Jon just blinked at his screen, speechless, wishing to have the ability to intervene or have a do over.

That was the final straw, the slur was interrupted and swallowed as Jason’s back hit the door, body completely held down by Nightowl, wrists pinned up over his head.

” **No you fuckin’ asshole**.” Malice gathered behind those words, Evan’s voice held real fury mixed with exasperation in it. “ **I’m calm because – fuck it, I don’t give a shit if this sounds cheesy as hell but when I’m with you I know that together we can solve anything.”** His voice softened at the very end, Evan’s shouting was taken over by barely breathed words.

“Aww.” Jonathan cooed the pressure in his chest rising, heart beating at an unhealthy speed when only two expressions appeared on his monitor whilst Manic and Nigtowl held a stare off competition.

‘Push him away’ and ‘Commit to it’.

“Yeah, I guess, commit to it?” To call Delirious’s state uncertain was an understatement as he pushed right on the D pad.

He was expecting Jason utter some apologies and talk about his trust in the other man but what he witnessed was something he did not anticipate. If someone had told him before starting this game altogether that this would go down, he would’ve laughed in their face and told them that Vanoss would never…

Jason lunged forward as soon as the command was chosen, he smashed his lips against Nightowl’s. The hero in his surprise let his friend’s hands slip away from his grasp, the shorter man escaped from his hold and wrapped his arms around the younger man’s shoulders, tilting his head to deepen the kiss. It took virtual Evan a few seconds to catch up with the happenings, he pressed closer to Jason, fingers finding their ways onto the other’s hips.

Jonathan’s controller spiralled into its death as the gamer lost his capability to speak en masse.

Mouth hanging open, breathing jagged Delirious whispered oh-so-lowly. “Damn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Here I am composing a burlesque~
> 
> This is not really how I saw them kiss in my dream but it makes more sense this way...
> 
> Welp I hope it was satisfactory lol.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I obviously don't know Delirious's surname so I went with the one most writers in this fandom use. :)

Jonathan could feel blood rush to his cheeks, own lips tingling as his stomach churned. What the hell was that all about?

“That’s… I didn’t know he was gonna do that!” He practically screeched, voice dragging away from his mic as he searched for his dropped controller.

In the meantime, Nightowl pulled away, mouth slightly ajar, pupils the size of the moon his gaze remained on his ‘sidekick’. The two were shown from the side, medium shots were used to get everything vital in the frame. It took Manic a minute to get himself back together, eyes barely focused as he opened them, Jon’s screen turned bleary for a second whilst the camera went back to first person mode.

The shorter man shook himself a little and so did Delirious. With a million thoughts swirling in the gamer’s mind he decided to keep going and deal with them later. He didn’t need that mental image stuck in his brain or the idea of him being in the place of Jason – no thank you, kind Sir.

“Um, I guess we just have to explain ourselves or somethin’.” The dualistic us was unexplainable.

Did Jonathan have to explain his choice and Evan the reason why this was a possible outcome or Jason and Edvin did, one for the initiative and the other for going along with the kiss?

Before he could ponder more about this, Delirious’s attention was entirely captured by the happenings on screen yet again.

” _ **That was – wow**_.” Nightowl averted his eyes from Manic, the floor seemed to be more fascinating than ever as he was at a loss for words.

Even though with a heavy heart the gamer was ready to face a ‘multiple answer question’, no dialogue options came up. There was no time for that since a thunderous force happened to appear, shaking the room like an earthquake.

“What is going on in this damn mansion?? For real now…” Delirious’s screams completely tuned out the voice in the back of his mind.

This really was a great move to pull as a distraction, he had to give the game developers credit for it.

As the two vigilantes studied themselves with open arms some boxes fell over revealing something on the floor. Jason crouched down, Jonathan pushed ‘X’ and the pixelated man moved an empty cardboard piece to the side.

_**”What did you find?”**_ Nightowl stepped behind him peering over his shoulder, both looking at a – a trapdoor?

_**”Jackpot.”**_ Manic mumbled because Jonathan found that word the most appropriate in the moment, ignoring the option to shrug and try to talk about the previous events instead of believing that this was their possible way out.

Joining forces, the duo lifted the metal lid then skilfully skidded it to the side. A dimly lit area was exposed – mostly – by the blinding light of the storeroom, without question both characters chose to investigate it.

“It’s not letting me retreat so I guess we’re going down, subscribers.” Insane snickers pleased by the probable death-trap rang out loud and maniacally.

The younger man didn’t tolerate the idea of Jason dropping down first, his form vanished before Jonathan could blink twice. Holding down ‘A’ Manic sunk down, muscles strained to hold onto the edges of the door so he wouldn’t fall and break a bone or two.

A couple of electric torches were mounted on the walls scarcely blinking on rancid surface, mustard coloured rusty ladders identical to the ones they’d (somewhat or more like could’ve) descended on unsteadily scattered here and there. The nocturnal bird posing party fiddled with a ‘compass-esque’ tool, a way of guidance was required, tracking skills alright but not perfect as of yet without some sort of technology.

“This looks dodgy as shit. And disgusting.” Delirious remarked as the two characters walked through a sewage system, Jason shaking his boots showed that he was on the same page as the gamer.

Shoes clacking and squeaking against the ground, Manic was manoeuvred to avoid wastewater with Nightowl right on his tail.

“ _ **Who in their right mind would build a mini castle over a drainage system?**_ ”The owl man asked in distaste, coming to a halt – their path was unpredictable, meaning there was no way of knowing where to go next, this was all he got.

“Shady humans apparently.” Delirious answered him and spun his character around with the right thumb-stick.

Without a desire to get lost even more Jason was stopped by the gamer as well.

” _ **Follow the water. See, it’s coming from here**_ -“The rhetorical question overlooked, the shorter man pointed out the obvious.

**_”Right_** …” Evan’s voice was distant, his in game form already trekking further.”Can we talk about what happened?”

Delirious’s brain went: _god no_ , his cursor and mouth agreed with him.

“Let’s find Marcel first…”

” _ **After we found Castle Monkey.”**_

Although they had nothing to do just walk and talking would’ve helped to kill the time Jonathan was not a hundred percent ready to discuss that heated make out session yet.

~

Eventually in the very end of the tunnels a barricaded door was found by the pair, the wooden planks forced off it, Manic broke through seeing sunlight for the first time in 2 hours – for Jonathan that meant about thirty minutes.

Was it Marcel? No. It was a deserted garden without borders. A simple meadow with dry soil and dying grass.

“I can’t believe this. I refuse.” Delirious shook his head repeatedly as Nightowl dropped down on his knees before Jason and buried his face in his hands in disbelief.

” _ **Where the fuck even are we?**_ ” The Canadian drew in a sharp breath, entirely done with this wild goose chase .

Manic crouched down beside him and put a hand on his shoulder just like he was instructed to do so.

” _ **I don’t know but we’ll figure it out**_.” 

The dark-haired man didn’t budge just huffed and sat down pulling his legs up to his chest.

“Come on, Vanoss don’t give up nooow.” Delirious drew out the last word, a frown atop his lips as he watched his friend’s virtual version on the brink of a breakdown.

Two sets of blue eyes examined the owl’s form, Jonathan switched to a ‘fuck it’ attitude and clicked something he knew he’d regret later.

‘Calm him down’ ‘Slap him’ ‘Shout at him’.

Jason put a finger under and one on Edvin’s chin, leaning down he made the other man meet his eyes. ” _ **Hey look at me. Breath.**_ ”

Mocha irises locked onto icy blues, in game Evan nodded and counted the inhales and exhales with his new partner in crime.

” _ **Good, you’re doing amazing.**_ ” A small kiss was placed on the owl’s cheek, then a hand was extended towards him pulling him up to his feet.

“This is so weird.” Delirious mumbled, hitting ‘escape’ to pause the game.

Checking out when the last autosave happened, he saved his progress and actually quit, closing his recording programmes with hours of footage secured. Time to edit and hit up DuDul with an idea for an eye-catching enough thumbnail.

~

He took a few days off from playing The Tale of Nightowl, posting some back up videos before he put out Episode 5 of the let’s play, the title so universal yet a perfect summary of what he was feeling. ‘What Is Going On In This Game???’ with Jason pushed up against a wall looking at his captor Nightowl with heart eyes. Jonathan was an expert at teasing the fandom and putting more gasoline under the metaphorical fire in the shippers’ hearts, so his thumbnail artist didn’t bat an eye at the clown masquerading man’s request.

At least a million views were in the bag this way, sure his subscribers were invested in the storyline and wanted to see the YouTuber rescue Marcel but the friendship and potential relationship of H2OVanoss, or according to Jonathan himself Vanosslirious paid the bills faster… Delirious grinned at himself as he investigated his analytics, the urge to crown himself as the king of fanservice faded away quicker than it came.

His comments were mostly silly, per usual. The majority weren’t about the video or the game just showing off the alleged dates of people subscribing to his channel, stories of teddy bears, merch, and occasionally a quote from the masked gamer. Filtering to see the best ones – the ones with the most likes – first the top three caught his attention.

‘The fact that you only have the option to kiss Nightowl when you play as Jason just proves that H2OVanoss is real even more.’

‘you can only romance Nightowl with Jason omg’

‘Delirious’s damn is how we all feel’

Is this what Evan had wanted? For people to believe that they were dating? Did he want them to do so? Surely not, Evan was not gay. Was this just a PR move from his management team to guarantee that enough people purchased the game because they saw how great of a marketing decision was to sell conjoint merchandise?

For the past three days Jonathan could do nothing whenever he was alone and not being productive but think about Evan, his stupid face and that stupid kiss Jason and Edvin shared. Even though he’d known that he was bi for a long time now and he could appreciate Vanoss’ looks the second he saw a picture of the younger man, the American never once thought about his best friend in an intimate way. He knew he loved him, he loved all his friends plus he’d been told on countless occasions that he gravitated towards Evan out of their whole group the most but this – this was different. Why did he gravitate towards him anyway?

Jon blamed it on mutuality. Evan always chose him before the others, it was an unwritten rule really, so naturally he did the same. But in reality, if he thought about it long enough Jonathan had to realize that Evan was his kind of person. He got him like nobody else did, their personalities sometimes showed complete opposition, yet this is what made their bond stronger.

The older of the two sometimes felt like the younger’s biggest fan, let it be his musician persona or the gamer, he watched, streamed or listened to everything Evan posted. Of course, he’d never tell him that but Jonathan’s enthusiasm for Rynx’s music was something that the former could not hide.

Accidentally hearting his top comment, Delirious didn’t notice he was smiling.

His laugh, his voice, the anticipation he felt when waiting for him to reply to his text.

_Fuck._

They needed to talk.

~

Barely a foot over the other Carolinian’s threshold and Jonathan wrapped Luke up in a bearhug, chin tucked into the latter’s shoulder. “Cartoonz, I’m so fucked.”

“Slow down there, brother.” Luke patted his distressed friend’s back, pulling away a little to assess the man before him in concern. “Hey, Jonny what’s wrong?”

“I think I – oh god. I’m gonna die because of him…” Was mumbled into the taller man’s shirt – misspoken version of ‘He’s gonna be the death of me – as Jon was guided to a sofa.

They sat down in a loosened embrace, hazel met crystal, the former held worry as the other utter disaster.

“Not to burst your drama queen bubble but tell me if we need my shovel and duct tape. Just as a heads-up you know.” Cartoonz joked in an attempt to lighten the mood and get his quote on quote brother elaborate.

“I mean you can burry me, that may help…”

This was when the hug was broken, an accusing finger placed on the younger’s chest.

“Jonathan motherfucking Dennis, don’t joke about that and tell me what is going on with you.” The bearded man demanded; threatening gaze didn’t deter him from further teasing. “ You found out you like men or something?”

“Shut the hell up.”

That topic was brought up rather frequently whenever Jon had something trivial to whine about. The trickster he was, Luke liked to rile him up with this just to see that annoyed pout form into a wide grin and uncontrollable giggling.

“Spill.”

“IthinkIlikeVanoss.” Jonathan spluttered without taking a breath all in one go, fingers fast to hide his reddening face.

Lucky for Luke he was fluent in Delirious thanks so the ten plus years he’d been learning his language, so he could easily translate that gibberish. Lifting an eyebrow, he scanned the room for a second and locked eyes with Jonathan again.

“Hey, Delirious did you know that I have two cats?”

“Wha-? Brows knitted together Jon stared at the other man with a dumbfounded expression on his face. “How does that have to do anything with what I just said?”

Cartoonz face palmed with a sigh then ran his fingers through his brown locks. “I know, dude.”

Eyes wide, Jonathan gaped. “What? I meant I like him as in – romantically?”

Luke nodded with a smirk. “Did staring at a fanart of him prance around in a 3D animation long enough make you figure that one out?”

“No, what? Why aren’t you shocked about this?” Voice a thin line away from sounding hysterical, the only thing that kept the dark brunette grounded was one of Cartoonz’s mentioned felines climbing onto his lap.

Luke scratched said cat’s head as he spoke. “Because you may be the last one who hasn’t realized this sooner. You can’t shut up about his amazing music, Vanoss told me this, sent me that, played this with me, showed me that hilarious glitch “ An eyeroll emphasized his point before he continued.” – god, Jon you really thought I didn’t notice? “

“Well I didn’t.” Jonathan deadpanned with his hand on a black and white furball.

“No shit, Sherlock…” Was the backhanded reply, the blue-eyed man’s panic and agony only amused Luke at this point. “Walk me through it, will ya?”

Jonathan did. He told him about the game and his never-ending spiral of questions that came because of it, getting the friendly advice to ask some from the creator himself in return. A middle finger in the air and groaning was what Delirious thought about Luke’s convictions – there was no way in hell Jon was willing to confront Evan about any of this.

“I mean you said that no other character than your clone can smooch that owl so what is it that we’re not sure about?”

“That it was Vanoss’ doing.”

“There’s one way to find out.”

~

“Hey, Vanoss how’s prepping for your show going?” Delirious fiddled with the wire of his headphones, the pair was getting ready to record a new co-op fighting game.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Evan’s tone was taunting, he lived by witty replies.

With a non-characteristic seriousness Jon said. “ I would actually.”

Caught off guard by the response the Canadian asked. “Why?”

That’s for me to know and for you to never find out. “No reason, just Toonz had been bugging me about it. To like, ask you because you know he’s going and shit…”

“Oh.”

Disappointment? Nonchalance? What was Evan waiting to hear?

“What?”

“Nothing, I just – I thought you changed your mind.”

Did he?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marco and Terrargh what are those names? 😭 God, guys I'm so sorry my brain just couldn't come up with anyathing better for Marcel and Terroriser. 
> 
> Anyway, your comments truly give me motivation to continue this story so thank you so much, you guy are the best <33  
> Also, I wanted to finish the game segment in this piece altogether but I guess the fact that I didn't just means more chapters so yaaay?

Jonathan stared at the papers in his hand blinking slowly. His printer was warm, a flickering green light signalled that it was still plugged in and waiting for further instructions or tasks. Paying no mind to the machine, he couldn’t entirely comprehend how he’d gone through with all of it.

Two plane tickets grinned up at him one to LA without transfers and the other the return to Greensboro dated five days apart.

_What the hell had he just done?_

Biting his lower lip, the American dreaded to look back at his monitor but did anyway. The confirmation email of a hotel room in the foreign city told him that he could still back down, cancel the booking with losing a couple of bucks at most. Yeah that’s what the text implied yet deep down Jon knew that money wasn’t the only thing he’d lose if he turned back now.

With five days to pack up and complete his play through he made himself snap out of his trance and closed the unnecessary tabs on his computer. A recording session already done with Cartoonz, Squirrel and Ohm it was time to load in The Tale of Nightowl.

Headphones plugged in, clearing his throat Delirious started his intro ready to explore yet again.

~

The thing is, Nightowl and Manic had no time to freak out more due to an abrupt voice mail popping up on the former’s phone from one of their informants who sounded suspiciously like Brock. He informed the duo about a new two to four-member group who may be interested in recruiting skilled candidates with deep knowledge of computer technology.

Evan asked for the coordinates and they were on their way in no time. A motorcycle spawning out of nowhere – allegedly a guy owed Nightowl one near the area they ended up in and let him borrow the marvellous red bike and also brought their iconic masks because logic meant nothing in this world sometimes – the Canadian was the one driving this time, Jonathan’s only task was to lean back and listen to the two characters talk about their plan to enter whatever establishment Castle Monkey was locked up in. The gamer watched with a smile as his in-game self held tightly onto the man before him, cheek pressed against his back.

“ ** _Do you think he’s really here?_** ” Jason snuggled impossibly closer to Edvin, making it seem like he tightened his embrace due to the sharp turns they were taking.

Tone wistful Nightowl answered him and reduced their speed a wee bit. “ ** _I hope so. I really do.”_**

“Not gonna lie, same. Like how many times can one run into a dead end? Hopefully not more than twice.” Delirious chuckled.

As they arrived at the location, which happened to be a normal house on the outskirts of town, they barely had time to climb off the bike and the door was flung open as if the tenants were waiting for them.

Paperbagman held Marcel hostage.

Jonathan almost completely lost it then and there in front of his monitor, Daithi’s evil laugh was worse than anything he’d ever heard. Brian with his stupid horse mask stood beside him as the two welcomed Evan 2.0 and Jason in their lair.

 ** _“Come on in, gentlemen. We’ve been expecting you.”_** Brian was the one to speak up first whilst the other Irishman giggled behind him.

“Are you serious?” Delirious breathed a laugh, having a hard time to keep up with the number of his friends present in this world.

“What’s your name then Terroriser? I’m pretty sure the Terminator is copyrighted.” Jonathan was right, after Brian’s subtitled words Terrargh was in brackets. How stupid.

Nightowl exchanged a questioning look with Manic. Should they walk face first into a trap just because the man addressing them was charismatic and invited them in?

‘Shake head ‘, ‘Nod’ and ‘…’ were Delirious’s options, he picked the first without having to reconsider.

The tiny gesture generated violent behaviour, fake Evan whipped out a gun from his holster and pointed it at Paperbagman. Jason did the exact same, aiming at the other Irishman, grip on his pistol tight and arm unwavering.

 ** _“No need to be hostile now fellas.”_** Daithi held his hands up in surrender then nudged Brian to do the same.

“ ** _Yer friend is doing more than fine with our five-star hotel service.”_** The horse-masked man chimed in.

“What is he – what are they talking about?” Jonathan asked in puzzlement, the wickedness of the two before them credible. 

Now he just waited for Wildcat to show up as the final boss since his notoriety was temper tantrums.

 ** _“What the fuck are you on about?”_** Evan’s tone indicated doubt mixed with confusion his partner remained quiet which Jon didn’t mind. 

**_“Let’s discuss this inside, alright?”_** Nogla’s character nodded at the light brunette beside him in confirmation.

“Why would Jasonlirious go in the scene of an evil lair?” _Hang on that wording can’t be right,_ Jonathan thought to himself then with the shrug of his shoulders let it go.

“ ** _Yeah_** , **_no_**.” Nightowl barely finished talking and Delirious had to tap ‘B’ to take leap forward in unison with the other man.

A combination of the left trigger and right bumper Jason swung his gun, the butt of it landing on Brian’s mildly protected temple, knocking him out in the process. However, the Canadian wasn’t so lucky with his attack, he didn’t go for a quick approach and shoved Paperbagman against the side of the house, leaving room for the other to fight back. So that’s what he did, seeing his friend drop to the floor in-game Daithi kneed the owl in the groin, making him slouch and groan in pain losing his balance.

“Ouch that must’ve hurt.” Jon hissed, empathic with the pixelated hero, holding ‘A’ to help him out.

Jason slapped the bag off Paperbagman’s head, holding the flailing arms back as much as he could with one hand and knocked him unconscious as well. Delirious provided extra fight sounds like ‘bang’ and various grunts, scream-laughing when he succeeded to bring Nogla down.

“Get up, Vanoss come on.” The gamer ushered the dark-haired man’s virtual version to recover.

Manic helped him straighten his back and locked eyes with him. **_“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”_**

Jonathan lifted his eyebrows at that, immediately thinking the worst as the screen went blank.

“Some gay, huh?” He mumbled half-heartedly not even considering something that could actually be connected to saving Marcel anymore.

His worries – or shall I say gay panic – faded as soon as the next cutscene loaded in.

The two Brits were shown with closed eyes, both tied to a chair each with Jason in the middle of tightening the last ziptie around Brian’s ankle.

After that the vigilantes split up yet again, walking around the place, the gamer almost shat himself when a silhouette entered the camera’s vision in the dining area.

 ** _“Castle Monkey?”_** Manic called out as a familiar hairdo popped up in his line of sight.

Marcel’s in-game self stood a couple of feet away from him munching on a sandwich as if nothing were more normal than the current situation.

“Wha-? Has Marcel been a villain the whole tiiime?”

Jason was as shocked as Jonathan himself, the former stood there with his mouth agape, no option for him to speak came up for a few seconds.

 ** _“Manic, you finally came, great_**.” A genuine grin atop his lips, Marcel let out a relieved sigh.

 ** _“Nightowl, come in here.”_** The guy in the blue hoodie eventually managed to call out, chestnut eyes blinked with a welcoming smile as the younger devoured the last bits of his food and took a seat, inviting Manic to sit down with him which the latter kindly refused.

“How- why is he so calm?”

Pixelated Evan practically flew into the room, ripping his own mask off pupils dilated as soon as he laid eyes on his oldest friend (according to the game at least) “ ** _Marco, oh my god! Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”_**

Nightowl crowded Marcel, hands wrapped around the sitting man’s shoulders the hero examined his right-hand man from head to toe. Seems like him ‘joining the dark side’ never crossed the Canadian’s mind.

‘Are there more?’, ‘Scan for injuries’ and ‘…’ – what a classic that last one – were Delirious’s possible choices when the storyline got bored of his character just standing there to the side.

“Are there more- yes, we gotta know that important information.” The Carolinian hummed, priorities different from most.

Jason cleared his throat to break up the domestic scene and stepped forward. “ ** _Are there more people in this gang – or whatever this is – than the two we’ve already faced?”_**

Castle Monkey met Manic’s eyes, shaking his head he batted Evan’s hands away. “ ** _Normally no. There’s one who comes here every two days, but he doesn’t live here. I’m guessing you two met a guy with a paper bag and another with a horse mask on his face?”_**

 ** _“Yepp. They are the ones who had been holding you captive, right?”_** Honey eyes got stuck on Marcel’s foot. “ ** _Hang on, did they - ? They put an ankle monitor on you_**?”

They did and Marcel explained why. The Irishmen didn’t necessarily hold him hostage, they gave him plenty of space in the enormous house of theirs, but he couldn’t step outside or contact anyone only once when they grew tired of no one coming to ‘rescue him’. So that’s when Marcel decided to send an encrypted message to Moo’s virtual version.

**_“They allegedly want us to work together with them and fight crime. First I didn’t really believe ‘em but because they never tried to hurt me and are actually fun to hang out with - and I thought why not give them a shot?”_ **

“They could be lying.” Jon thought and made Jason say something similar.

**_“Are you sure they are telling the truth?”_ **

Marcel shrugged and shook his head. “ ** _Obviously not but- uhm, what have you guys done to them_**?”

Dumbfounded, Manic couldn’t help but inquire ** _. “How did you not hear the literal commotion that was going on outside?”_**

“ ** _I was asleep?”_** Clearly offended, Castle M. threw his hands up in the air which made Delirious cackle.

Right on cue pained groans rang out from the hallway one of the lads regained consciousness.

Owl mask pulled on again Evan’s voice had an edge to it. “ ** _Let’s take a look at them, shall we?”_**

~

 ** _“Look we didn’t cause him any harm_**.” A bare faced Brian tried to reason with the trio, who stood in front of them with their arms crossed, eyes pleading as ever, Jon almost pitied him. _Almost_.

“Are we supposed to believe that?” Delirious clicked his tongue and let Manic speak.

**_“You still kidnapped him and basically caged him.”_ **

**_“Kidnapping is a harsh word. I wouldn’t call it that…”_** Daithi couldn’t finish his say as Nightowl cut him off with a harsh glare that was visible from his mask’s eyeholes.

“ ** _You injected him with sedatives, drove him here against his will and restricted his freedom. Calling it kidnapping seems justified for me…”_**

 ** _“Yes, or else you and yer boyfriend would’ve never come to negotiate with us._** ” Nogla snapped at Nightowl and gestured towards Jason with his head. “ ** _He’s even more paranoid than you are, Owl._** ”

“Boyfriend? Huh, that’s – I don’t think that’s accurate.” _Yet_. Jonathan added in his mind, clearly only thinking about Edvin and Jason. _Certainly._

Vanoss’ character let that false title slide, not so keen on denying or confirming it he tilted his head towards Marcel.

**_“You can’t know that.”_ **

“Yeah, guys. The whatifs are not worth thinking about.” That had been Delirious’ new slogan ever since Luke talked some sense into him about his crush on a certain Canadian gamer.

“ ** _Right_** …” The elder Irishman huffed, the attempt to cross his arms was suspended by his hands tied to his chair. “ ** _If we asked you nicely to chat with us would you have agreed to come?”_**

“What did I just say?” Jonathan laughed a little then murmured a ‘no of course we wouldn’t have come’ then pressed a entirely different dialogue bubble.

“ ** _Who knows. Does it matter anymore?”_** This was mostly directed at the raven-haired man by his side, knowing that the conversation or rather interrogation wasn’t going to move forward unless they moved on from the conspicuous facts.

 ** _“We didn’t ask you sweet cheeks but your boss man.”_** Inflection mocking and a pitch higher than usual Brian smirked as he waited for Manic’s reaction.

“Wow, how rude, Terroriser. Show some respect to Jasonlirious.”

“ ** _Shut up Terror’_**.” Nogla mumbled under his breath, he would’ve kicked Brian in the shin if he could, Jon was sure of it.

Instead of the anticipated rebuttal of Jason, Edvin spoke up more and more irritated as the seconds passed.

 ** _“Don’t you dare talk to him like that. His opinion is as good and important as mine._** ”

‘Awww.” Jon cooed, appreciating the fond words from his friend’s mouth.

 ** _“Told you t’ey were datin’.”_** Although this was meant to be whispered by Daithi, everyone in the room heard him, Marcel rose an impressed eyebrow and glanced between the two guys around him.

_Were they?_

“Nogla always says shit like that that’s why he’s the dumbest of the lands.” The gamer snickered to himself as the camera panned from left to right and displayed every party in the scene from the front.

“ ** _Your point_**?” Manic shuffled his feet, gaze on the ground for a beat or two rose colour climbing up his neck and his ears.

Pixelated Marcel stood to the side and Evan’s eyes never strayed away from the blue-eyed man.

“ ** _Nothing, nothing… We just wanted to build a team and thought ye would like to take part. It would be easier to cooperate than compete against one another in who does more good_**.” Brian nodded at Nogla’s words vigorously.

“ ** _Like a superhero team, right?”_** ‘Marco’ tried to help out without much succession.

Nightowl snorted at that not believing his ears. Were they actually serious, surely they were taking the piss…

“ ** _A superhero team? With two criminals, a guy who wants to retire and two people who seriously try to make this godforsaken city be better_**?”

‘Terrargh’ wriggled in his chair and protested. “ ** _No, no we are not criminals. We’ve never_** –“

“ ** _Then ‘xplain what capturing a human being means if not criminal behaviour_**.” Evan’s voice rose, all hell broke loose the two tied up men argued with Nightowl back and forth, Jonathan could hardly pay attention to everything that was going on.

“Jesus, chill out guys.” Delirious commented as soon as Marcel joined the battle of words with Manic being the silent observer until he got fed up with these aliens harassing his (boy)friend(?) verbally and screwing their chances in getting a positive reply out of the hero.

Jason hit his fist against a nearby table and yelled at them. “ ** _Shut up for god’s sake_**!”

“That’s right.” Jonathan smirked to himself, proud of his character standing up to air his views.

Four pairs of eyes landed on him as probably the biggest decision came face to face with Delirious. Should he take Nightowl’s side and deny their offer, which probably meant imprisonment for Daithi and Brian, or hear them out and persuade Edvin that a team was not a bad idea after all?

“Fuck, I don’t knooow. What should I do, subscribers?” Hovering between the two options his cursor stayed above the one on the right longer. “Okay, right, it’s – ah fuck it.”

With a tight grip on Evan 2.0’s elbow Jason shifted closer to the taller man. “ ** _Nightowl, can I talk to you for a second. Privately?”_**

“ ** _Sure_**.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a mess but when has it not been so it's all good lol.

“Look, I have to pause it here.” Delirious leaned back in his seat and turned serious mid-recording for once, ready to redo everything that had happened in the last ten minutes. “A lot of you will be pissed at me for this, I don’t know maybe you won’t. I just feel like friends you can trust with your heart, blindly I suppose, are more important to have than a bunch of fake ones just so your social circle or whatever is wider. Sure, some like long-distance friends are needed too – I, I have no idea if I’m making any sense now by the way but anyways, you need some guys to like chit-chat with every now and then those are nice too. However, I think that having quote on quote friends who know shit about you and only around to call more people their friends are not great. Um-“

_Where the fuck did this all come from?_ And how was this connected to his gameplay or the storyline of The Tale Of Nightowl apart from the huge emphasis it put on partnership? Shouldn’t he be trying to make Jason open up more and give people a chance to prove they were trustworthy? Besides he had nothing against Nogla or Terroriser, he liked them equally so that whole ‘let’s boycott bigger groups’ attitude wasn’t targeted at the just life in general. Maybe seeing some of his very close friends fall into this trap of quantity over quality in the past triggered this speech and it made him want to share his observations and opinion with the people who looked up to him.

Fuck it, this is what everyone would want him to do, he decided that he wasn’t going to reload a checkpoint and chose not to extend their already existing team. Those thoughts could be brought up again when he wrapped up the recording session worded better and with less vehemence.

Jonathan took a deep breath and unpaused the game.

Nightowl and Manic walked far enough to be out of earshot, the shorter man put a hand on the other’s shoulder to get his undivided attention.

**_“Edvin, I think that they deserve a chance to redeem themselves.”_ **

Evan’s virtual version only cocked his head to the side and motioned for him to go on.

**_“I think they really want to help just didn’t know how to contact us thus made a stupid mistake.”_ **

“Thus? How fancy.” Jon felt the need to comment that, alert in case he had to contribute to the conversation in one way or another.

The gamer’s intuition turned out to work supremely, the next thing he knew he was clicking at the speed of light.

“ ** _Is that so? You think we can tru- don’t answer that, I know you do or else you wouldn’t have said that.”_** Lifting his mask off Nightowl ran a hand through his dark locks and locked eyes with his friend. “ ** _Marco is seemingly on the same page as you so I’m not gonna be the one who stands between you guys and this new opportunity_**. **_Besides_** **_you’re a superhero now. Allowed to join other groups whenever you want to. It’s your task to write your story._** ”

Then and there Jonathan realised why it was called _The Tale of Nightowl._ At the beginning it was indeed Nightowl’s story but then this new protagonist showed up, following every step the hero took. Now it was time for Manic to have his own spot in the limelight. Plus, since there was a generous variety of characters to chose from it was impossible to make all of them title heroes, so it made sense even without this explanation.

‘Okay, let’s untie them’, ‘Give them ‘probation time’ for a while’ and ‘You don’t have to be a part of it’

“Woah, how messed up is the last one? Like why would I abandon Vanoss – Nightowl now?” Baffled out of his mind the exasperation was evident in Delirious’s tone.

He could never part ways with one of his best friends because there were new people with new advances. Not entirely. Not like this.

Hands in his hoodie pockets, Jason bounced on the balls of his feet. “ ** _If we go through with it, I think we should let them join us on a few missions to test their skills and intentions. Like a probation time sort of thing to see if they’re only trying to mess with us, like attempt to infiltrate our base to sabotage us or something.”_**

_Our base._ Jason was yet to agree to move in with Edvin, no wonder the latter visibly perked up at that.

“Yes, Jasonlirious is right. They might seem friendly, but they can be villainous scum underneath it all.” Jon agreed with his character per usual – he made him say these things so no surprise there – and pulled a leg up to his chest to get rid of his cramps.

It took Nightowl half a second to think it over before he stated. **_“Alright. We’ll give them a shot.”_**

**_“Thank you.”_ **

Confusion clear on his face Edvin asked. **_“For what?”_**

**_“I don’t know, trusting me I guess.”_** A sheepish smile was hidden underneath Jason’s disguise, glad to have met the hero.

Evan 2.0 shook his head with a smile, stepping closer to the dark brunette he wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug.

“ ** _You don’t have to thank me for that.”_**

A smooth transition followed and took the viewer onto a loading screen. Jonathan could sense that this was the end. It had been a while since he heard Evan’s voice narrate from the sky, that feature was seemingly preserved for the prologue and the epilogue.

“ **Isn’t it strange how in the peer span of a twelve months how many things can change? One day you meet someone and before you know it in the blink of an eye you call them your best friend even though you had no idea they even existed in the previous year.”**

The camera slowly zoomed in on the original base of Nightowl and Castle Monkey – the inseparable duo – with ‘Five Months Later’ pinned onto the bottom of the screen. The shot entered the building through the window displaying the hall then the living-room on the ground floor, effortless beats playing in the background. Probably Rynx’s work.

“Oh my god. Everyone’s here. Well, almost.” Delirious gasped as he watched the scene unfold.

Wildcat’s well-known pig mask and zebra print pants caught the gamer’s eyes first, then a man in a Panda hat with an incomplete outfit the two playing cards on the carpet with Paperbagman and Terrargh an ‘American eagle’ observing them from the arm of a sofa with a short intimidating looking monkey.

**“And sometimes one person can bring in more friends who soon become your friends as well because if they like these new people then so will you.”**

Brian slapped the upside of Tyler’s head playfully earning a glare and a middle finger in the air, Lui giggled without sound – the room was muted but Jonathan could practically hear his online friends as he watched their pixelated antics – Anthony doubtlessly wheezed as he threw his head back. The view changed unhurriedly, the opposite couch was presented where a guy in a grey hoodie, bunny ears and a blindfold with an omega symbol and a devil masked individual were seated.

“Even Cartoonz is in this? Are you fuckin’ serious?” There was no malice behind those words only shock and bewilderment. “Hang on – is that? Jason has the same tattoo as Cartoonz and Ohm, woow. They must’ve been in his previous gang.”

The attention to detail in this game was spectacular. Jonathan was proud of himself for noticing such a small element.

**“People you can rely on always and forever.”** The camera focused on a teddy bear with a Jason Vorhees mask strapped onto its face, a blue jumper around its fluffy body the exact same time those words left narrator Evan’s mouth.

Jonathan’s heart just about stopped when the camera knocked against the red-striped white disguise and zoomed out of Manic’s one on the table in Nightowl’s planning room.

The music was turned down, Evan spoke up as an omniscient storyteller one last time.

“ **And even if that best friend who’d brought all this joy to your life drives you _delirious_ sometimes, soon you’ll came to notice you love nothing more than that. “**A shaky breath and “ **So, all you need to do is learn how to accept this information and embrace it.”**

Jon had no idea how to fathom all this fresh and rather panic attack worthy knowledge, so he chose to ignore it for now and patiently waited for the last few seconds or minutes to roll by.

Jason’s hands rested next to his mask as he watched Edvin scrub off sharpie residue from the whiteboard of the BBS’s crew with a fond smile of his face. Satisfied with his work, Nightowl turned to face his partner in crime mirroring his grin. The shorter man crossed his arms over his chest as the Canadian made his way over to him, placing long fingers on his hips.

“ ** _What?”_** Icy blue irises met honey ones in question, Jonathan gulped due to the two’s proximity or lack thereof.

**_“Nothing. I’m just happy that I met you, that’s all.”_** The original hero shrugged, smile widening when two hands were interlocked behind his neck.

**_“Is that so?”_** Edvin nodded. “ ** _Good because I feel the same way_**.”

Delirious recognized that he should probably say something at least slightly intelligible and relevant to what he saw. “This is so – wow. The romance is steamy right here.”

Loud knocks didn’t bother the pair enough to let go of one another, Jon assumed their relationship was not a secrete and had been established a long time ago. ‘Marco’ popped his head in and cleared his throat.

**_“Hey boss man. Stop makin’ out with your boyfriend and come help me.”_ **

This made the owl’s gaze pull away from his lover’s, he finally took a step back from Jason and let go of him with a roll of his eyes.

“ ** _First, I’ve told you not to call me that a million times. The BBS doesn’t –“_**

“The BBS?” Jon struggled to get that reference, he believed it was an abbreviation for something foul, the name ‘ _Banana Bus Squad’_ wasn’t something he stumbled across every day.

“ ** _Doesn’t have a leader. We’re all equally important therefore we work perfectly as a team.”_** Marcell’s voice was playful as he said the ‘catchphrase’ in sync with Evan, Jonathan wondered how many takes that took to get right or it was all impressive sound technology.

Jason chuckled and hopped onto the table with his legs crossed. **_“Ignore him. What’s up?”_**

**_“The guys want to order pizza or go to Happy Burger. The votes are tied so we kinda need yours as well to decide.”_ **

“I swear to god if one of them is gonna say ‘But Wildcat’s mom made chicken’ or some shit like that I’m quitting.” For Jonathan this coming up was beyond surreal in an ending scene, but then again who knew what went on in his favourite Canadian’s mind most of the time or ever for that matter.

‘Happy Burger’, ‘Pizza all day baby’ and ‘Half of the team does this and the other that’ appeared on Delirious’s monitor.

“Is this really the last decision that I have to make?” He giggled with a huff of disbelief. Evan was unbelievable. “I mean Vanoss is gonna say pizza there’s no question there, but should I go with him? No actually, that third one is quite logical...”

**_“I mean why don’t the ones who picked the burger place go out and the others stay in and order less pizza than you would’ve for all of us?”_ **

“Yes, democracy is good an all but if they want to do different things they can always go and do them. You know what I’m sayin’.” Jon blabbered without much thought to his words, the reality of meeting the in real life version of the man his character was dating hit him once again.

_Shit_.

Evan’s going to know he fell head over heels for him within two seconds.

Vanoss just had to smile at him and Jonathan was bound to spill all of his secrets to that gorgeous man. The American was a ticking bomb when it came to talking and Evan in general, dangerous for anyone that dared to cross his path but the most fatal to himself, that’s for sure.

“ ** _Really Jason? That’s your contribution to that argument?”_** Delirious had never been more thankful to hear Marcel’s interruption.

**_“Yes, it’s not like we’re glued together.”_** Manic swung his legs and debated whether to stand between the other two or stay.

“Very fair point Jasonlirious.”

“ ** _I mean you two can be if you know what I mean…_** ” The Carolinian snorted at that, the wink following ‘Marco’s’ words just made everything better.

“ ** _It’s not like you and Four-zero-eight don’t get into similar situations_**.” Pale skin on slightly laggy frames was tinted red as Jason shot back with a smug grin.

“Pfffft. They didn’t even try to hide who they are talkin’ about.”

**_“I have a wife?”_** With a hand on his heart virtual Marcel acted as if he’d been shot.

“Oh yeah, I forgot… Then why did you not retire?” Jon teased genuinely curios how and why that never occurred.

“ ** _Enough_**.” Nightowl held a hand up and blinked at his now left-hand man. “ ** _Tell ‘em pizza and that Manic is neutral.”_**

“Told ya. I’ve known this my whole lifeee~.”

It was Manic’ s turn to act offended, he gaped at his boyfriend. “ ** _I have never said that_**.”

“ ** _For god’s sake.. Come on_**.” Edvin beckoned for Marco to retreat to the rest of the group, the latter didn’t hesitate to follow the unsaid order, as the owl man also headed out.

Jason did not budge. He lingered in his seat following his lover with his eyes, mulling over something.

**_“Are you not coming?”_** Evan’s voice sounded caring and gentle, he used the same tone whenever Jonathan announced he’d had enough of a specific game and desired to go to bed and the dark-haired man wanted to change his mind about it.

He always did.

**_“In a second.”_ **

Nightowl understood. His other half wanted to be left alone so he didn’t press any further and left him to it. If it were any of his business Jason would tell him anyways.

“Is he gonna cry? No, don’t cry Jasonlirious. Everything is fine. And if not then it’s going to be, I promise.”

**_“I really managed to find myself a new family, huh?”_** Manic mumbled to himself then a smile took over his sorrowful features. “ ** _And I’m more than okay with that_**.”

He hopped off the table and walked out of the planning room, shutting the door behind him. The camera showed the flat surface for about five seconds then the music came back with the credits rolling.

Jon watched the countless names appear on his screen with an unexplainable emptiness in his heart. He was so invested in this game, finishing it left him feeling like he lost a vital part of his life, no matter how exaggerated it sounded it was real at that moment.

Recognizing his friends in the voice actors and ‘character’s based on section’, he was curious if his own name would show up. It did but not in the form he secretly anticipated. It was better than he’d ever hoped for.

**‘And last but not least special thanks to H2ODelirious, this game would’ve never existed if it weren’t for you. You’re the best (but Vanoss would never say that to you so if you see this congrats). x’**

****


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone says anything I know there's no second concert in LA but he show itself - just like everything else in this book - is fiction. 
> 
> I hope y'all will enjoy this long ass chapter :)

Evan loved it when his friends drove him delirious. This thought lingered in Jonathan’s mind as he chucked clothes into his half empty suitcase. Scratch that. He claimed to love nothing more than that from his best friend – but, who was the best friend? Brock, right? He was the one people – Vanoss was no exception – tended to turn to for advice since he was the most level-headed part of the group, and possibly the wisest as well.

Then why did Delirious get an ‘honourable mention’ not Moo at the end of TTONO? More importantly what was that all about?

Messing with his recently purchased iPhone, Delirious open and closed Evan’s contact at least five times before he gathered enough bravery to tap away and compose a message.

**Delirious: Am I your best friend?**

He couldn’t bring himself to press send. In a way it felt ridiculous to ask the Canadian man that. Maybe because Jon had no idea why he even doubted that fact. Or since for him it was childish for two guys in their late twenties / early thirties to text about such a thing. They weren’t in kindergarten anymore.

**Delirious: Is Nightowl not telling me something? :P**

No, that was even worse than the first. That goofy face – Jonathan dodged real emojis for now – didn’t help either so he deleted the whole thing.

**Delirious: loved your game, cant wait to talk abt it**

Avoiding the elephant in the room was the gamer’s favourite game to play no wonder why he chose to do it again. Evan wasn’t better either, he was a culprit of the same crime specially when Delirious was included.

**Delirious: also break and arm for your concert :P**

This was Jonathan’s way of wishing good luck to the other man, with the Rynx show coming up it only felt right to do so.

Taking a deep sigh, he continued to pack with a more organised thought process, placing practical items in his suitcase instead of random stuff he found. Even though he didn’t think his younger friend was going to respond any time soon with his hectic schedule, Evan did within ten minutes.

**Owlman: thx, we could catch up after the tour is over**

Although that sounded lovely to Jon, he knew the catching up part was going to come sooner than anticipated. Well hopefully at least. He still had to drive to the airport, get on a plane and safely land at LAX. Not to mention, that wasn’t all. 

**Owlman: also if I broke an arm I wouldn’t be able to play my guitar :’(**

Jonathan laughed with a huff at the end and lied down on his stomach on his bed.

**Delirious: no**

**Delirious: that’s not what I ment**

**Delirious: isn’t that what ppl tell others before a performance or sg?**

Instagram notifications ignored, he scrolled through the trending page on YouTube, clicking gaming when he found no interest in the main page anymore.

**Owlman: I get it im just messin with u**

**Owl: it’s break a leg btw**

**Delirious: shut up mister I-know-everything**

**Owl: wish u could come**

Itching to hit send on a message like ‘who says I’m not?’ or something else equally mysterious Jon realized that would be too suspicious. Since he had no intention to reveal his plans, wanting to keep his surprise what it was he decided against it.

**Delirious: one day**

~

Most often than not having Luke as a friend always practically twenty minutes away was a blessing. However, now when the two rode together to, as Delirious called it ‘his doom’, it was more of a curse.

Sure, the bearded man helped to keep Jon’s fear of flying at bay, Cartoonz couldn’t help himself but tease his brother from another mother throughout the whole journey. Nothing incriminating or harsh was said, the younger of the duo could still fantasize about strangling Luke, though.

“Jonny, come on you know I’m right.” The mentioned man grinned at his pal, luggage collected on their way out of the terminal.

With an eyebrow lifted the blue-eyed one asked. “About what?”

“That you’re in love that buff Canadian beefcake.” Tone deadpan Luke didn’t expect the fist that collided with his arm not hard enough to leave a bruise.

“ I like him.” Was the dismissive follow-up of that proclamation, Jonathan had never seen a massive airport like this one before.

Blue irises drifted from left to right taking in the scenery, the warm LA wind pleasant against his cheeks as he squinted in the blinding sun. There were way too many people around them, Jon inhaled a shaky breath whilst a familiar arm snaked its way around his shoulders to guide him out of the way of the commuters.

“That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one.” The corners of chocolate eyes wrinkled in devilment, keen on staying on topic.

Jonathan’s anxiety was taken over by irritation, he snapped out of his trance, the unbeknownst city no longer so thrilling. “Shut your damn mouth and help me find a cab.”

So that’s what they did. Taxis were easy to spot around such places as an airfield, it was no surprise that the pair made it to the building that would accommodate them in the next four days in a jiffy.

The hotel they’d picked was lively to say the least; Jon was frantic to scan the lobby while Cartoonz dealt with the lady behind the reception desk. Aware how a rather tremendous handful of his online buddies flew down to California for Evan’s concert and happened to like the idea of staying at the same hotel, he had to remain a respectable distance away from the other Carolinian. It’s not like he wasn’t going to reveal himself to them as well, he just wanted to meet Evan first.

“Jesus, dude chill.” Luke patted him on the back with two key cards dangling between his fingers. “No one’s out to get ya.”

Jon shot his friend a dirty look and mumbled. “You know why I-I’m looking around.”

No words needed to be uttered as the two men made it to their floor and were ready to go their separate ways.

Well, except for one last remark or a piece of advice of you will.

“Put something sexy on for your boy, will ya?” Was cheeked with a smirk and a wink, Jon slammed his door in his brother’s face.

“Shut the fuck up.”

~

Even though Jonathan had no intention to listen to Cartoonz’s words he still did. They were going to attend a concert after all so he couldn’t just throw on sweatpants and a hoodie and he was good to go. No, he needed something dressy but not too chic to avoid unwanted attention. A dark navy button down, freshly ironed – he praised the hotel for providing such garments as an ironing board and an iron itself – paired with dark jeans and matching sneakers, he eyed himself in the mirror with a frown.

This was stupid. He should’ve put on a t-shirt and something comfy which represented him more than anything else. This wasn’t Jonathan, all smart and seemingly ready to party. Running his fingers through his messy strands he snatched his bomber jacket, that he never normally wore, from the back of a chair with reluctance and shrugged into it.

Phone screen informing him about the time, the American had to get a grip and get going if he wanted to be on time when the gates were going to open.

With his ticket in his pocket, a backstage pass on a lanyard around his neck tucked underneath his shirt Jonathan convinced himself to head out. What he wasn’t prepared for was Tyler, Marcel and Scotty walking down the hallway with Luke the exact same time he opened his door.

For his misfortune Scotty shot him a glance, intrigued by the noise on their left so Jon had no chance to retreat to his room without looking like and absolute creep. Gulping, he quickly locked the door behind him and fumbled with the knob to give his friends time to reach the elevator without him on their tail.

Stupid elevator, always gotta be so slow- Jon thought to himself, strolling at an exceptionally slow pace _. Come on just arrive and close_ before he could catch up to those four…But of course, it would’ve been too easy for him to slip away like that, Toonz obviously had to look around as the quartet waited for the lift to reach their level. Locking eyes with the panicking Delirious, the bearded man mirrored his expression. Trying to be subtle with checking the slightly shorter boy out Luke gave his brother a once over. Thankfully Scotty and Tyler were in a heated debate about something trivial that kept Marcel occupied as well so Cartoonz had time to give his best friend an approving nod before he jabbed a finger towards the stairs at the end of the hall. Jonathan’s brain couldn’t wise him up fast enough to register the silent suggestion, the elevator opened, and Marcel turned his way as well.

_Fuck. Shit. No way. No._

Jonathan’s already fair skin turned paler with three shades. Like a deer that’d been caught in the headlights he blinked at the smiling man he’d known for more than eight years.

That smile turned into a confused scowl, Marcel become worried for the man he believed was a stranger. The former simply tried to be polite and let Jon get in first as he’d sensed another presence seconds earlier and assumed that they’d also want to use the lift. Four pairs of eyes now fixed on the faceless gamer, Delirious never wanted the ground to crack open and swallow him whole more than at that very moment.

“Are you okay, man?”

That finally made Jon come to his senses and nod, pushing past the four YouTubers into the elevator on autopilot with a forced smile atop his lips. He wanted to say something to make those concerns wash away but he didn’t trust his voice. It would’ve been a dead giveaway of who he was, and he wasn’t sure if he could deal with such a thing so soon.

He could play this off, he kept telling himself. Just pretend you’re a tourist and pray that the guys wouldn’t notice what was hanging around your neck.

Luke was the first one to step in beside him as the trio still shared weirded looks.

“Come on boys, we don’t wanna be late now do we?” The eldest of the group clapped Wildcat on the back while he passed him which caused the rest to move along.

All piled up in such a confined space the escalator kicked off at last, Jonathan could’ve sworn it was the longest minute of his life. Good thing they stayed on the fifth floor so they got down relatively quickly, Jon darted in the opposite direction of his friends and wandered around until he found a corner he could hide in in the lobby and wait till they disappeared.

Now he just had to reach the club.

~

 **Toonz** : **I see you’ve listened to me for once. Good boy :D**

That text came through when Jonathan was two girl squads away from getting into the concert, the tapping of his fingers on his thigh ceased as he typed out a reply.

**Delirious: u almost exposed me u asshole -.-“**

“I can’t wait to see him. I saw on Wildcat’s Insta stories that he’s also coming with a bunch of other guys. I hope we get to take pics with them.” Jon overheard a redhead chirp behind him, Evan’s theory of Vanossgaming fans attending was proven to a certain extent then.

“Do you guys think Delirious is coming too?”

That made the hairs rise on the back on the gamer’s neck, his nervous habit returned like it never left. Although he tried to tune the chatter out, he wasn’t able to because so many people were saying so many things that scared him beyond return. His gamertag that became his online name was a reoccurring topic for instance, everyone was curious whether the mysterious Delirious was hiding in Vanoss’ dressing room or stayed at home, afraid that someone would recognize him.

Even though neither were entirely true, Jonathan was in fact scared shitless of the second one, he barely noticed the bouncer ask for his ticket and the security guards who searched him for anything inappropriate in his possession.

“Sir, you know that you could’ve entered from the artists’ entrance with that pass, right?” The man who’d scanned his ticket asked with a non-judgemental look on his face.

Of course, Delirious knew that but that way he couldn’t have avoided Evan’s crew. This was the safer route, no matter how risky it actually turned out to be.

Multiple fans turned his way, clearly interested in the one-sided conversation between him and the guard.

“Yeah – um I’m just here to check if both entrances worked good- like smoothly and stuff.” He managed to splutter out, voice a lot deeper than normal – just like he’d practiced.

“Alright… Come on in then.”

Jonathan nodded in thanks, slipping into the building with trembling hands, the grip on his phone so tight his knuckles turned white.

Background music was already playing as an intro to Rynx’s gig, beaming lights illuminated the people present in flashes. Jonathan sized up his surroundings, locating a bar on each side of the place. He wasn’t one to drink alcohol so he settled for a cup of sparkling water that he decided to nurse as long as he could.

Finding a place that was close enough to the stage but not too close so the fans wouldn’t crowd him was hard at first. Jon assumed that the majority of the attendees hadn’t arrived yet since the tickets had all been sold out, he expected a full house experience. That prediction wasn’t far off from the truth however the club was luckily wide enough to fit everyone without having to be pressed against strangers throughout the whole night.

Evan was on schedule, exact as a Swiss train, smoke machines and firework like explosions Jonathan didn’t know the names of went off signalling that the awaited artist made his entry. The American’s heart was beating so fast he was dazed that he was still able to stand, excitement rushed through his veins from his fingertips to his toes as he heard the first note of one of his favourite songs.

His friend of almost a decade emerged from behind the smoke with the most glorious Fender in his hands, fingers fast and fluid on the strings he played with so much concentration on his face Jon was on the verge of happy tears from how much he himself was smiling.

EDM had never been Jonathan’s go to when it came to music but ever since Evan started making remixes, he quickly got the hang of the genre. Then when original songs followed the masked gamer fell in love with every word of their lyrics, ‘Want You’ and ‘Read My Mind’ being his top two for reasons unknown.

Bobbing his head to the rhythm, the thought of filming his best friend perform never crossed his mind. Jonathan enjoyed the music with almost as much passion as Evan was playing. An unworldly feeling fell over him when the Canadian changed his electric to an acoustic guitar and sat down to strum along with Mainland, mouthing the words along with the singer.

At one point Jonathan could’ve crossed his heart that Evan locked eyes with him, aware how there was no way in hell the other man could see further than the first few rows clearly in the limelight. That’s when the delirious man decided to record a few seconds of the performance, an idea forming in his mind.

He was going to send the clip to Evan to let him know he showed up.

As he was busy plotting his flawless plan, he found himself clapping along with the crowd and chanting ‘Rynx’ ready for the encore the guitarist was obliged to do.

~

The concert was over.

The fans spread out, some lingered in hopes of meeting their idol as the others all headed outside, content with what they’d witnessed. Jon was part of the former group, he was on a mission, though with a bigger chance or achieving his goal. He fished his backstage pass out from under his shirt as he trotted up to the left side of the stage, still pumped up from the energy Evan’s music had given him.

“No fans allowed.” A rather scary looking man put a hand on the Carolinian’s chest to stop him from going any closer to the restricted area.

Howsoever, Jonathan was fearless then.

He quickly held a hand up and pressed send on the video he’d recorded to Evan then flashed his pass to the bouncer with a massive grin.

“How about now?”

“Jonathan Dennis, please show me your ID.” The man’s tone was strict and professional.

He wasn’t messing around, Jon noted, glad to learn that his friend was in safe hands.

“Sure.” The dark-haired man patted around in his jacket for his wallet, his phone buzzing like a madman in his back pocket.

“Here.” He held his ID up to the staff member, with the nametag Bruce, who was looking at him funnily.

Maybe Bruce thought he was high. That would’ve explained the dilated pupils and toothy grin Delirious was sporting but he didn’t care. He was to ecstatic to care.

“Sir, don’t you want to answer that?” Noticing the constant vibration from Jonathan’s phone Bruce the bodyguard inquired.

The gamer shrugged an turned on Airplane mode so Vanoss and Cartoonz couldn’t call him anymore.

**Owlman: wtf dude**

**Owlman: are you here???**

**Owlman: ???**

**Owlman: Jonathan are you herww**

**Owlman: here??**

**Owlman: r u just messin w me?**

**Owlman: answer your goddamn phone**

**Cartoonz: either get in here or tell your boyfriend that you got that vid from me cuz he’s freaking out**

**Cartoonz: Jonny?**

Not sure if he should brief Bruce about the news, he did anyway. “Just my friends – Rynx and his gang are wondering where I am.”

Reading his ID, the guard’s expression softened before he handed it back to him. “This way, sir.”

  



	9. Chapter 9

The hallway Jonathan was led down by another staff member was wide and full of doors. Light grey walls stood on each side of him, the pass between his palms would’ve been crumpled by if it wasn’t laminated.

Okay maybe his courage was wearing down as he neared the double door guided by two guys.

“You’ll find the lounge right in here.” The lady smiled at him then at the guards, noticing the hesitance in Jon’s movements she asked. “Everything okay?”

“No actually. Could I stay here for a second? I gotta make a call.” He knew he was stalling but he couldn’t help it.

The high of the concert drastically subdued as he could hear chatter from the outside of the chilling entrance. Jonathan could identify a few of the voices, the loudest being Evan’s – that was a first – blatantly brushing off the congratulating words of his friends. Why would he do that and why did he sound so frantic?

Oh right, Jon confused the shit out of him, that probably was the source of the problem.

The petite redhead blinked at him for a couple of seconds, scanning him in order to find out if he was going to pass out or not.

“Sure, tell me if you need anything.” Deciding he wasn’t going to she eventually chirped and turned on her heels, walking away, giving him some space.

Jonathan took a couple of steps back too and manoeuvred his body until he was out of the guards’ sight and his back hit a wall.

_Fuck_.

He did not think this through.

Gripping his phone with unnecessary force, he quickly turned off Airplane mode, muting the device so it wouldn’t start uncontrollably buzz in his hand. His precaution was worth it, a hoard of messages came through, the missed calls just grew and grew.

Making a run for it really would’ve been a dick move, deliberating when had he gone wrong, Jonathan knew it was now or never.

But how about going back to the hotel then calling Evan the next day to visit him there?

Jon’s thoughts were rudely interrupted, he just about shat himself from the uncalled-for jump scare. He could hear the double doors rip open, both slamming onto flat cement as someone stormed out with the words. “I’m gonna find that son of a bitch.”

Jonathan’s ribcage nearly broke or at least crack from how hard his heart was slamming against it. He could identify that voice startled from his sleep, it didn’t matter that it was no longer – very slightly – distorted by a microphone.

“Evan, wait!”

_Luke?_

“Why, you basically confirmed that he is here somewhere, so I have to! What if he’s hurt or worse and that’s why he’s not answering his phone?” The Canadian’s tone wasn’t angry at all, rather worried and perhaps a little excited. 

An odd combination if you ask me.

“Look Vanoss, if he doesn’t want to be found he won’t be.” Luke sounded exasperated even though he clearly attempted to fake the opposite.

Jon knew his brother better than that, the bearded man was freaking out almost as much as Evan was just for different reasons.

“Yes, Mr. Fong, running out there is not the best idea.” Came a female voice Jonathan couldn’t connect a face to, he scurried closer to his beloved wall as if he could fade through it.

That would’ve been awesome, the gamer noted, running out of ideas how to flee.

“I don’t care at this point. My best friend’s out there somewhere and –“

_Oh fuck it._

He had to see this.

Jonathan peeked out from behind the pillar that kept him hidden. What he spotted was Evan’s back facing him, a girl’s eyes immediately locked onto him in curiosity.

_Busted_.

Blue eyes wide in horror, Jon held a finger up to his lips then pointed at his badge before she could say anything and get him removed from backstage. Wasn’t that Evan’s manager? He had never been good with facial recognition per say or had seen her more than twice on photos hence why he couldn’t be a hundred percent certain about that.

Thanking the heavens that the two YouTubers were too preoccupied with having a battle of words and also that no one else followed them outside, he slowly sneaked up to the arguing pair and the unknown lady.

A shaky hand reached out to touch one of those broad shoulders before Jon knew what he was doing.

“Hello.” Voice somewhat high-pitched on purpose, Delirious had no intention to deepen it to his laid-back everyday tone.

Equally recognizable lines like ‘I was behind you the whole time’ ‘Give birth’ or any nonsensical blabber that had ever left the Carolinian’s mouth didn’t feel right considering the circumstances, no matter how some would’ve definitely fit the situation.

It was a real treat to watch the recognition wash over Evan’s features. He went from shocked to discombobulated then delighted within the span of two seconds as two toned arms wrapped themselves around Jonathan’s thin form.

“Delirious… It’s really you.” Evan whispered into dark brown locks, the embrace fastening, both squeamish to let go.

“I didn’t know owls could talk.” Was the smartest thing that found its way out from behind quivering lips. Jon didn’t trust himself to utter longer statements yet, skin on fire he itched to touch him again and never let go if possible.

That caused the brown-eyed man to snort and pull back just enough so they were eye-to-eye.

“And I didn’t know clown raccoons left their dumpsters.”

The older man felt the urge to swat that smirk away, not cruel enough to damage that pretty face he resolved from it.

Smiling at one another with happy tears in the corners of their eyes both boys saw nothing but the other. To say that neither had daydream about this very moment would be a total lie. Evan pictured it to take place after a convention or at Wildcat’s or something as Jonathan had various disastrous scenarios deterring him from making it happen.

And now when one did come true – half true since the debacle part didn’t occur – he had to apprehend that there was nothing to be afraid of. Vanoss was his friend and he wasn’t going to change his opinion about him because he got to see his face.

Luke cleared his throat to remind them of his presence, sharing a look with the lady who was with them still.

“Great. Can we go back now?” The eldest of the guys spoke up, amusingly rolling his eyes to emphasize the fact he was bored of the show the two put up.

Only one of Evan’s hands slid off Jonathan, the other stayed around his shoulder, the additional weight calmingly pleasant.

“Only if it’s okay for Jonathan too.” Evan’s tone was uncharacteristically soft as he glanced back at his best friend in clarification.

Cartoonz obviously had to notice the longing look his brother shot back at the musician so he had to intercept before things could get out of hand. “Don’t let this motherfucker bail on y’all now Vanoss I swear to god.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” The addressed man grinned at Luke then back at Jonathan who supported his views.

“Well neither did I- but… Do the guys know I’m here?”

Jon undeniably hadn’t forgotten about his encounter with a fourth of his buddy-ol’-pals, he visibly winced at the memory.

“Not exactly. They think you were just teasing me.”

“Alright. Let’s mess with them a little, what do you say?”

~

“Hey guys, this is Jason one of the developers of The Tale of Nightowl.” Evan started with eight pairs of eyes staring back at him and the newcomer, some from the couches some from the floor. “He was awesome enough to come to my show.”

This was the background story the ‘dream team’ could come up with right off the bat. The name was a special touch of Batowl – yes Delirious referred to his partner in crime like that and called him crazy when he came up with that quote on quote brilliant idea. They were going to attempt to make the crew believe that the insane water based clown poser asked his fans to send him clips of the gig and he just forgot to provide a caption with the video that he'd sent to Evan and he fell asleep, that’s why he wasn’t answering his phone.

Believable right? Typical Delirious. It was a genius plan, the man claimed.

Smitty, Kryoz, Wildcat, Terroriser, Nogla, Basically, Four-zero and Panda all quieted down at the same time all baffled to witness Vanoss so calm and casual after being antsy ever since the concert was over.

No further questions were asked, everybody present estimated the possibility of that story. Most of them knew Evan better than to let his trickster behaviour slip from their memory. 

Delirious accidentally met Wildcat’s eyes – big mistake – as the tallest in the room searched for something in his own pair of blues.

“Yeah fuckin’ right.” He seemingly found it since Tyler was the first to break the awkward silence that fell upon them with a puff. “If that’s not Delirious I’m eating Nogla’s socks.”

“Haven’t we met in the hotel?” Marcel’s inquiry earned a raised eyebrow from the older Canadian in the lounge, talking over the insulted Daithi who was confused why Tyler picked his socks out of everyone’s.

Evan’s attention was shifted back to Jon like it never left in question. Opening his mouth to learn more about the origins of the comment the latter beat him to it.

“God damn it. Why y’all always gotta be so detectivey and shit?” If that hadn’t given away Delirious’s identity, then the following cackles that turned into giggles surely did.

“You son of a –“ Marcel shook his head disbelievingly open arms fast to engulf the other gamer in a rib-crashing soul-healing hug.

Soon enough – almost – everyone even John and Jaren joined in, the group formed a vast circle with the masked gamer in the middle. The chitchat came back, overall white noise filled the air, the gang was eager to inspect the cryptic Delirious inch by inch.

Luke and Evan stood to the side keeping an eye on the scene that was unfolding. The guys all (re)introduced themselves to Jon, friendly slaps on backs and grins indicated that they were all overjoyed to see him. Though a couple of deprecative words were jokingly jabbed at the hockey masked gamer from the trio he’d already managed to escape once, they understood his actions in reality.

Delirious was more than thankful for that since he most likely wouldn’t have been able to give them a satisfying answer to their questions himself even if he really tried.

“So this is why you were acting all suspicious.” Evan mumbled gaze fixed forward on the shenanigans of his friends.

Luke huffed in mock offence. “Excuse you, I was not bein’ suspicious you all wise owl. I just had to keep Jonny’s secret safe.”

“I’m glad you did. He deserves friends like you.” The shorter man’s tone was earnest, he gave the American beside him a fleeting look.

“Sap.” Cartoonz mumbled while Nogla almost smacked their best friend on the head as he flailed explaining something.

“Fuck off.”

“On a more serious note, likewise, Evan. I think you are one of the best things that’s ever happened to my lil bro.” Luke shed an invisible tear at his own speech but deep down he knew he meant it.

“Do you really think that?” Evan did too.

“Mhm. And I also believe that he wouldn’t say otherwise if you asked him.”

Maybe not with those words but he’d never deny that.

A smile so wide Evan’s cheeks almost hurt he assessed the situation in front of them. “Should we save him from the hyenas and vultures now?”

“Let him suffer some more.”

~

Even though the evening dragged out to be longer than anticipated with the group chilling and joking around in the lounge for almost two hours, no one would’ve had it any other way. The attendance of Brock, Lui and a scarce number of older friends would’ve also been nice. The mom friend had family obligations to attend to as their very own friendly neighbourhood squeaker was up to god knows what that prevented him from coming. He did send his regards, though so he was forgiven.

“Stay with me?” That came out more pleading than Evan had intended as the pair walked shoulder to shoulder falling behind their friends after exiting a diner.

The group had achieved to track down a hole in the wall type of restaurant that was still open after ten. Although it was a tight fit, they managed to all pile up in there, some limbs collided from time to time elbows sharp against stomachs and arms around tables.

“Like that would be fair to the others.” Jon murmured what his mind told him as his heart sang him the opposite.

“They’ve all stayed at mine before. It’s your turn, they’d get that.” The American felt Evan shrug against him, he couldn’t see it though due to his captivation with not falling over his own feet on the defective sidewalk.

It wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, he reckoned. He’d finally get to meet Evan’s cat and maybe just maybe have a chance to discuss some issues with the raven-haired Canadian face to face. They both deserved a heart to heart after all.

“I already paid for my hotel room.” Jon tried to reason, his deepest fear at that moment nudging the back of his mind powerfully.

“Cancel it and they’d pay you back for the days you haven’t spent there.”

Even the polymath – yes if you were a musician, gamer, YouTube sensation then you fell under that category according to yours truly Terroriser the best voice actor of the lands – wasn’t certain about his point as they continued their drift toward the hotels.

“You’re a persistent one, aren’t ya?” Jonathan’s mumble was rhetorical, he didn’t wish for a verbal answer.

But he received one anyways. “’S my job.”

Comfortable stillness enveloped the duo. They didn’t need to talk to communicate, not when they could see every little gesture and reaction the other made just by being in each other’s close vicinity. Like the ever-present smile that matched on their lips or the little tapping Jonathan did with his fingers whenever he was upset or agitated. And the fact that he was doing it now drove Evan to back off.

“Delirious?”

“Yeah?” Icy blue clashed with honey while they took a turn and waited for a traffic light to switch green.

“You are not obliged to say yes you know. I just wanted to spend some time with my best friend and I’m sorry if I came on too strong, I - .” Always so apologetic, the hand that lightly touched his cheek then retreated as if it had been burned startled Vanoss for a second.

Delirious was surprised at himself for doing that, too to be fair to him.

“Oh I do too and you will, trust me.” He flashed him a toothy grin, dismissing the knowing look Toonz shot him in the meantime.

That nosy fucker should mind his own damn business and pay attention to his conversation with poor Scotty.

“Why do we have to walk? We should’ve called an Uber just like we did before Skrillex wannabe over there started robbing hearts.” Brian whined to no one in particular, shooting Evan a glare and anyone who dared to talk back to him as the eleven YouTubers struggled to remain together at a zebra crossing.

“He still is, brother.” Marcel snickered when the musician flipped them both of, arm making its way around Jonathan’s waist this time to fuel the already existing flames.

Blue gaze immediately on the pavement, Jonathan’s only option to shelter himself was to scurry closer to the man on his side.

Impressed hollers and approving thumbs ups displayed the general support of that action from the group, all boys lost interest in the two’s relationship as soon as they could move along.

“The guys already think that you treat me differently. We don’t want them to tease us for this now, do we?” Was murmured just above a whisper.

“Let them. It’s true.”

Without further explanation to his actions Evan skipped further ahead to catch up to Anthony - with a blatantly made-up excuse – to show him something on his phone, leaving Jonathan gaping and flustered all over.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Insane water based clown poser' that's - that's the tweet.


	10. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay, I just didn't want to rush the ending so I sat on it for a few days. 4,5k+ words buckle up for the final lol.

“You don’t understand Cartoonz, I will murder that damn owl.” Jonathan was more than glad to have parted ways with the red to his blue, Evan had really been grinding his gears with his stupidly adorable laugh and ambiguous behaviour.

Luke snorted at his brother’s demeanour, not ready to split up with him. “You’d be the most devastated by that trust me.”

“Yeah, ‘cause his ghost would come and haunt me with his gay shit.”

The older Carolinian huffed a laugh. “Wouldn’t you like to experience that?”

Blue eyes were rolled with a chuckle. “Shut up and go to sleep.”

“Here?”

“No you dumbass. Go to your room. Pester your girlfriend on the phone or some shit.”

“It’s three in the mornin’.”

“And?”

“I always forget that your bitch ass doesn’t function as a normal human being.”

~

The next morning was somewhat calm. Jonathan got woken up by his phone’s alarm that he’d set so he wouldn’t rise at three pm or later. He trotted down to get breakfast with the others in the hotel’s cafeteria before they met up with Evan to explore the city a little, unconsciously searching for the mentioned man’s face in the sea of people.

“Looking for yer boyfriend?” Nogla wiggled his eyebrows at Jon as he circled him with a bowl of Cheerios in hand.

“Boyfriend? I don’t have none of those.” The elder of the duo flopped down on a chair around a vast round table where Scotty and Anthony were already half-way done with eating.

“Sure, bud.”

And that was that.

Even though the topic was never brought up again Jonathan couldn’t help himself but revolve his thoughts around the expression. _Boyfriend_ , he hadn’t had one of those in a long while… Did he even want Evan to be his boyfriend? Yeah, that was a stupid question he realized as soon as it popped up in his mind. He obviously did, he just wasn’t sure his feelings were reciprocated.

The idea of the Canadian breaking things off with him escaped his brain. Evan wasn’t going to stop talking to him because he had feelings for him, he knew that. He did, yet he still didn’t plan on a confession. A confrontation of sorts – yes, a lovesick speech, no. Maybe a coming out if the circumstances were right.

“Jonny?” Cartoonz leaned into his personal space – nothing new there – sneaky enough to whisper his words when no one paid attention to them.

“Hm?” Was the smartest thing the younger Carolinian could come up with, his now cold toast untouched on his plate.

“Don’t sweat it. He’s just as whipped as you are.”

Dark brown met crystal blue in reassurance, Luke’s eyes were smiling peace as he gently pushed Jon’s food towards him.

“Now eat up. It’s gonna be a long day for y’all.”

~

The air was humid around them as the crew was given a minimalistic tour of LA’s most exciting and or absurd sights. Jon squinted in the sun, not used to this much light both in general and in February, whole body lighting up whenever he saw something familiar.

“Why do I feel like I’ve been here before?” He mused as his online best friend passed him a pair of shades.

“Probably because you’ve seen it a million times through your monitor.”

Jonathan hummed in contemplation, Evan wasn’t wrong.

Los Angeles gave him the vibes of the uncanny. Los Santos always seemed friendlier even with its crazy happenings and sky-high crime records.

“Why are you givin’ me this for?”

The dark-haired boy shrugged and ushered him to try the sunglasses on. “I had a spare pair, thought you could do with one. Once I’ve read somewhere that people with lighter coloured eyes are more sensitive to sunlight.”

The two were way too caught up in their own little bubble to hear Anthony’s statement about his discovery. According to the panda man, Vanoss’ disappearance at a vendor’s earlier must’ve resulted in those glasses that suited Delirious so well.

Jon flashed Evan an incredulous look as he slipped the accessories on. “You’re weird.”

It took the latter a second to respond, momentarily stuck in a trance he soaked in the sight before him.

He chose exceptionally well.

“Wow, not even a thank you.” Evan decided to go with that, a compliment stuck on his tongue.

Jon didn’t have to be reminded for such a simple manner, so he muttered. “Thanks, Hooodini. I actually needed that.”

Smiling from ear to ear the American fell back to chat a bit with his bro-pals Marcel, Smitty and Luke, catching up with the first two. Their musician friend was stolen from them in the meantime by Tyler and John both inquisitive about the production of _The Tale of Nightowl_.

Conversing about life in general, conventions and planned trips in the far future Jon found himself distracted by the dirty blonde Irishman of their group.

“Frozen yoghurt is the devil’s creation. It’s so mediocre yet people still love that shit.” Brian exclaimed when he had spotted an off-brand ice-cream place near the ocean.

“It’s extra because it gives people a false sense of power over their dessert when they dump toppings on it.” Marcel shrugged, earning a few unimpressed and or puzzled looks.

“Dumping shit on other shit is fun. Like potatoes over dumbass McGee over here.” Tyler’s comment made equally as much sense as it had any correlation to Marcel’s observation as he gave an affectionate pat to Nogla’s shoulder.

“Why – No actually, don’t answer that.” Evan shook his head with a laugh, Jon giggling beside him – somehow, he fell into step with him once again when the gang came to a halt – he met his eyes with a smile. “Who wants fake ice-cream, it’s on me.”

“Fooood. Who wouldn’t want that?” His blue-eyed companion beamed back at him, loving that offer.

He wasn’t the only one excited about Evan’s proposition. One by one the guys flooded the yoghurt place, creating the most colourful desserts, joking about gummy worms and chocolate bears Delirious should’ve refused to eat.

“Hold on.” Evan was barely ready with paying for them and he was already focused on Jonathan and his messy ways of eating sweets.

“Wha-?” Jon was so close to finish his question, plastic spoon was lowered back into his cup.

An unexpected napkin made contact with his nose in a tender manner. The hand that had appeared in his face dissolved faster than it came as it was replaced by a cheeky grin.

Jonathan felt like fainting as he gaped at the man he was so undoubtedly in love with. A startled noise was the only thing his vocal organs could produce, he thanked whatever entity was watching over him that it was so faint no one heard it but him.

Evan never backed down from the staring contest the two held, their friend group standing in a circle to the side waiting for them long forgotten. “What?”

“Why did you do that?” Disturbed with red tinted cheeks the masked gamer spluttered.

“Cause I – I mean I have no idea how you managed to get fro-yo there with a spoon, but you did so I had to something about it.”

“Yeah Jon, don’t blame him for your own slob like nature.”

That remark revoked the wish for Luke to fly home and cease his humiliation. Don’t get me wrong he loved his brother as the next person but – as selfish as it sounds – he needed some alone time with Evan no matter how hard he dreaded it.

Some issues had to be discussed and he wasn’t going to fly home before they were done doing just that.

~

The group hung out for about two hours before everyone – except for Jon – had to get their bags and head to the airport. They walked around on Santa Monica Pier, some ‘magicians’ stopped them to show them some tricks at some point, Nogla wanted to vlog the exchange but got told to either forget about that or be very careful with who he filmed. Tyler and Marcel chose to post short clips on their Insta stories instead, Delirious strictly kept out of the shots. No one had a problem with this method since the guys were used to Evan’s own camera shyness, they mastered how to record only from certain angles.

As for the one usually portrayed behind a hockey mask, he held his laughs back whenever a phone was pulled out knowing better than to expose himself so foolishly. If the world believed that he was a vampire who never left his coffin, then so be it. He was more than happy to confirm that rumour.

And before Jon knew it, he was waving farewell to the faces he already missed. There was no time for sadness, though, everyone made a promise to have a gathering during summer involving the ones who couldn’t make it this time.

~

“Oh my goodness. You must be Waffles.” Jon crouched down to the fluffy creature that walked up to him the second he’d stepped over Evan’s threshold.

“The one and only.” Evan chuckled, scratching his cat’s head, surprised to see how easily his boy bonded with Jonathan. “He’s usually more reserved than that. He must like you a lot.”

Was he the only one, though?

“Well then I’m glad he does. Right little kitty-kitty?” He cooed stroking Waffles’s soft fur, playing with the idea of carrying him. “Can I pick him up?”

“Go ahead.”

Cat cradled like a baby, Jonathan expected nothing less than an MTV Cribs style house tour which he got without having to ask. The duo lingered in the kitchen longer than anywhere else downstairs, Jon adored that Vanoss put his last birthday gift from him there – that arch reactor was magnificent there for everyone to see. 

The next place that intrigued the American was Evan’s studio where he was promised a little live show at some point in the following week with a Gmod Sandbox map played together in return when Delirious had gone home.

“You have so many guitars it’s insane.” He ran his fingers up the neck of a striking blue electronic instrument in adoration, a sudden idea fresh on his mind. “You could teach me sometime.”

Evan’s eyes twinkled at the suggestion, a glimmer of passion present in those irises. “You’d like that?”

“Sure. Or maybe not. You could be a shitty teacher as far as I know.” Jon was messing with him at this point, keen to see the other man’s setup in person not just from a video or photos that had been sent to him exclusively.

“Aaalright, can we go to the next room?”

~

Postponing the TALK they needed to have for as long as possible every plan of Evan’s sounded good to Jonathan. Within four hours of the guys leaving the American was persuaded into leaving his hotel and taking up Evan’s guest bedroom instead.

The first morning was strangely domestic. Neither men were Michelin star worthy chefs hence why the ‘local’ one suggested to go out and visit a nearby breakfast place where their time was well spent. Between food trades and coffee tasting – they tried to choose something extra from the menu and ended up switching drinks because Jon obviously had to like the owl man’s one more – light teasing occurred, Delirious only scanned the café twice to make sure no one was spying on them.

“Dude, relax. My face is not memorable enough nor do I show it that much for fans to recognize me everywhere.” Evan put a reassuring hand on his free one which wasn’t on his mug.

Jonathan rose an eyebrow both due to the action and the first part of that untrue statement. Brown eyes noticed the flicker of confusion on his friend’s face, he attempted to cease the touch, but he wasn’t fast enough. Jon flipped his hand so his palm aligned with his and intertwined their fingers.

 _Gotcha_. He thought to himself, the realization of the gesture’s look from an outsider’s point of view only hitting him when their waiter arrived for his coffee refill.

“Here you go, sir.” The boy beamed as he placed the steaming beverage between the pair.

The raven-haired Canadian squeezed Jonathan’s fingers to show that he was not backing down. Two could play that game, he tested how fast Delirious would give it up.

“Tha- thank you.” The latter managed to stutter with a smile, the third party mirroring his expression left them to their own devices. “Why are you holding my fuckin’ hand still?”

A blush crept up on Jon’s neck and cheeks, he was not angry at Evan though rather touched by the action.

“You started it.” A fair point was made by the younger man who slid his hand out from underneath his slowly.

“Did not.” Also true statement paired with intense eye-contact holding.

“Why are you so upset about it?”

Even though the lean muscle covered arms crossed over his chest said otherwise Jonathan protested. “I’m not.”

“Whatever you say, man.”

Amused at how flustered his best friend became, Evan rose to his feet with the aim of taking care of their bill.

Chugging half of his coffee down Jon lifted his eyebrows in the other gamer’s direction. “Where are you goin’?”

“To pay.” The part time musician deadpanned as if he’d declared the colour of the sky or the location of the state they were in.

“Why would you – I should pay it’s the least I could do considering I’m like – what are they called?” The people who tend to live on other’s money- probably parasite was the word Jon was looking for yet couldn’t find to save his life. “Whatever, I stay at yours for free. It’s my time to repay you in a way.”

“I have more subs henceforth I pay.” Evan made no attempt to sit back down, his brain was dead set on doing what he pleased.

“What? That has nothing to do with this. Don’t you dare walk away from me. Evan!”

Back facing Delirious the younger sang.“I can’t hear you. You’re too far awaaay~”

“Asshole.” Was muttered, his true opinion washed down with a latte.

Vanoss treated him like and gentleman and Jonathan could not place that behaviour. Why was Evan doing that? Did he act like this around every friend of his? Sure, it was common knowledge that the Canadian was famous for flooding his mates with gifts, but this was different. Such chivalrous demeanour seemed a bit over the top and foreign for a man with only welcoming intent.

But then again who was he to judge? He’d never met Evan face to face before after all…

~

Lingering touches, constant closeness – if Evan nudged him with his knee one more goddamn time as they played card games on his living-room floor Jonathan was bound to combust. He himself had never been a very physical person, a few hugs and secretly loved cuddles were where he normally drew the line and now seeing that his friend who claimed to be beyond socially awkward and even shy at times practically couldn’t keep his hands to himself baffled him.

“Fuck you. Do you have to cheat every round?” Cross-legged Jon almost slapped that smug smirk off Evan’s face as the latter threw down a plus four.

This was their fourth round of Uno and believe it or not Evan had won every single one so far, driving the American up the wall with his ‘douchebag-esque’ techniques.

“Don’t pick them up. There’s no need, I’ve already won anyways.”

Blue eyes squinting in mock hatred Jonathan picked every single card up by slowly reaching for them, lifting them up at the same tempo then snatching them toward his deck with a swift movement while his gaze bore into Evan’s soul.

Theatrical as a diva Jon whacked seven cards down before Evan could gently place down his yellow five and finish the round.

“I won – see?”

“How? You have three different colours and a skip, none of them yellow so how does this make any sense?” A perfect brow rose in question, Evan knew his friend wasn’t serious.

“Imagine this one is a wild and boom, you ain’t no longer the champion.” Jonathan looked around for Waffles, more than inclined to deal with something else.

“Okay, buddy.”

“I’m not playing this game anymore.”

“I’m sorry. I promise I’ll help you in the next round.” Evan’s eyes softened more and more with every word.

That made Jonathan’s frustration level rise, he leaned back against the feet of a leather couch with a sigh.

“What? I don’t mean out of pity or anything – “

That’s when the floodgates opened.

“That’s not – Vanoss, I – why do you always have to do that whenever we play online too, huh? I threaten to leave because you’re being a total jerk or because the game is impossible to play then you want me to stay. Why? Is it because the footage with me is like more valuable views-wise?”

Evan did not believe his ears and wondered if he was having a nightmare again. Nonsense like this only happened in those, he claimed.

“No, Delirious. I want you to stay because you are my friend and I actually enjoy playing with you. Sometimes more than with the others, might I add.”

Doubtful and a bit jealous Jonathan couldn’t hold back anymore. There was no point. “Sometimes?”

“Yeah, who am I kidding? Always.” Evan admitted drawing a knee up to his chest as he did so. “And as for acting like a brat or whatever- you know that I never mean it and I immediately apologize afterwards.”

“Then why do you – why are you like that at times?”

“I guess it’s this YouTube persona I’ve developed throughout the years. You know when the jokes stopped coming naturally and everything felt repetitive in my videos. Without you in them.”

There was it again.

Jon must’ve pulled an unintentional grimace since Evan abruptly frowned.

“God, don’t look at me like that. I’m not trying to blame you for my content being mediocre at best without you. It’s just, I feel like we have this crazily amazing chemistry that helps us create great things without trying too hard to be funny and entertaining.”

Jonathan understood that he did, he just couldn’t grasp why didn’t he just mention this to him earlier or better yet join his ‘new gang’ from time to time for videos.

“And don’t get me wrong, my – or I guess our- other friends are great and talented as well but we don’t work perfectly together at times.”

The parquetry covered by a soft carpet no longer felt so welcoming beneath Jonathan. “Then how come you included them in your big project and left me out?”

“I didn’t leave you out.” Evan furrowed his eyebrows and blinked at him in bamboozlement.

“There was no Delirious in _The Tale of Nightowl_ nor did you ask me to voice act in it.”

“Jon, the character you played as – wasn’t it obvious enough?”

It was. Jonathan just wanted to hear Evan say it.

“What about him?”

“I portrayed – my team portrayed him from you. With the iconic clothes, mask, the colour of blue and your personality traits. Jonathan, Jason is your virtual version in that world.”

His head cocked to the side the Carolinian ran a hand through his hair. _Keep talking_ he hinted with a nod.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t realize that.”

“I did. I just want to know why like this.”

“Because I – “ The hesitation was so clear in Evan’s words Jon almost felt bad for him for pressing on. Almost.

“And is it true that he is the only one you can make – you can kiss Nightowl with?” Cursing his brain for bringing that up and thickening the already dense tension Jonathan didn’t miss the horrification that twinkled in Evan’s eyes.

“Why does this matter to you?”

“Don’t go all defensive on me and answer my question.”

“Answer mine first.”

Clicking his tongue Jon shook his head. There was no way he’d confess first. Or ever for that matter. Once again, he didn’t fly down there to ruin a presupposed life-long friendship, no thank you. It was more than enough that he let that question slip about the ‘romantic allegations’.

“I wanted you to be a main character in my story because you already are one in my actual real life.”

To say Jonathan was taken aback by that statement would be an understatement. And the way Evan said it just broke his heart even further. The sincerity mixed with hurt and something else Jon couldn’t quite detect or pinpoint exactly sent an urge through his veins to reach out and cup that gorgeous face full of sorrow with his hands.

His brain may have chanted ‘no’ when those thoughts awakened, he may never know. Not when his heart instructed him to go through with it and make Evan look at him by doing just that.

Evan’s skin was soft against his palms as the two locked eyes.

“Hey, don’t you dare be sorry about this. I really appreciate – all of it. You didn’t have to include me, yet you did so I should be the one who’s sorry for attacking you like this. I had no right to - “

The distance between them grew shorter and shorter, neither could tell nor cared who started leaning closer to the other.

The faintest brush of a pair of lips against his own was enough to stop Jonathan’s rambling. Hyper-aware of what had happened, Evan’s eyes widened, and he was ready to apologize over and over again until he made everything right. However, Jon didn’t let him, he chased his lips and captured it in a longer kiss, patient for a response to come. It did, the pressure Evan provided back made the blue-eyed man forget where he was. Behind closed eyelids he could sense nothing else but their mouths melding together and two strong arms wrapping around his middle.

Ready to risk it all and experience utter heartbreak, demolition like havoc, he kissed him long enough to cause every fibre in his body filled with doubt vanish.

Out of breath, lips still tingling the younger of the pair pulled away just enough to be able to look his best friend in the eyes. “I’m also weird around you because I may or may not like you more than just a friend. And I had no idea what to do with those feelings but now I feel like I might do.”

Jonathan had never felt this ecstatic in his life before. The worry that turned into severe anxiety in his mind, weighing down his shoulders and chest evaporated just like that. Evan had always had that kind of effect on him whenever he was being his true self. He could blow the thunderclouds away from his grey sky and replace it with invigorating sunshine.

“So y-you puttin’ Jason as a romantic interest for that owl wasn’t a coincidence?”

“Nope. Definitely not.”

Jonathan’s grin widened, dimples showing and eyes squinty.

“Good because I kinda feel the same way.” Keeping Evan at arm’s length and never further sounded like a good deal then.

“Do elaborate.”

Jon nearly pouted as he made sure his hearing was still okay. “Do you really want me to say a long speech about liking you when you know that I’m shit with words?”

“Yes. I wanna hear you say it or else I won’t believe it.” Evan shifted closer to him, bumping their knees together.

“Vanoss, I swear to god…”

“Call me Evan, you know you can.”

“Evan, fine… So I totally agree with what you said about finding out I like you and not knowing what to do with that information. I’ve always thought you were straight and would never wanna date someone like me. ‘Specially with not knowing how I look like and shit.”

“Well seeing you just made me fall harder, you know.”

“Fall?”

Did he hear that right or was Jonathan’s mind playing tricks on him? It better had not…

Evan shrugged, trying to play it off as a slip of the tongue with nonchalance.

“Would that be so bad?”

“No. Not at all.”

“So what does this mean for us?” Tone hopeful, two fingers beneath Jonathan’s chin Evan had the audacity to ask for more confirmation that they were on the same page.

“Take me out on a date and find out.”

~

In the remaining four days the duo went on three different dates full of impulsive decisions. The first one happened in an arcade with infinite laughs and competitive shouts about the defeat of the other. Neither boys could wipe the smiles of their faces as they stumbled back into the apartment, the door was barely closed when Jonathan was pressed against it with fingers in his hair and lips on his own.

“Your laugh – it sounds more insane and beautiful than through a mic. Not to mention the pretty face that comes with it.”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

That led to jokes about how kissing on and before the first date was a bit fast paced, but they justified it by nine years of friendship with almost one or two of those filled with mutual pining.

The second date took place in a cinema where they watched an action movie. First Jon was leaning towards a horror for obvious reasons – one, he loved them, two, well you can all guess why – but then he realized that it’s better to be safe than sorry so if he had no intention to expose himself, which he still didn’t, screaming in a theatre wasn’t the way to go. 

And the last one was a dinner date at Evan’s favourite pizzeria. That was a shared idea; Jon wanted to learn where his best friend got his interruptive food delivered from during recording sessions as the Canadian rooted for this plan since he was aware of Jonathan’s fondness of the Italian dish.

That night when he walked him home Evan knew this was what he’d been waiting for. His tale could have never been completed without Jonathan by his side. Let it be through a laggy Discord call, holding his hand whilst admiring the lights of the city of dreams or strolling down the small path between Jonathan’s house and his favourite park in Greensboro.

Jonathan caught his now boyfriend’s stare thoughts undoubtedly on the same wavelength as Evan’s.

“Move in with me.” He clamped his mouth shut as soon as his brain caught up with his words, the dreamworld he’d created in his mind and was currently living in was a step ahead of him.

“I’d love nothing more than that.” The answer came just as fast and hastily as the proposition.

Jonathan didn’t ask in affirmation but in disbelief. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah. Fuck it, let’s do it. I’m sick of this city anyways.” Evan said that like it was nothing, equally as crazy as his other half to be this calm at that moment.

Only gaping followed, in the middle of the vacant sidewalk Jon was at a loss for words.

“What? You suggested it.”

That did the trick, Jonathan lunged forward and smashed their lips together then and there, interpreting his feelings through his actions.

“Hell yeah. Start packing, owl man.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've made it his far I'd like to thank you for reading my story. I truly appreciate the support you guys have shown me throughout the whole book.
> 
> Honestly I almost stopped at the part when Evan thought of his tale being incomplete without his water boy then I decided that this story needed some more crazyness woops. 
> 
> Anyways, until next time  
> Love you all,  
> -Sophie x


End file.
